Ronnie Burkett's LITTLE DICKENS Comes to Canadian Stage

Toronto theatre audiences are getting a delightfully unexpected holiday present this year, as Canadian Stage welcomes internationally acclaimed and multi-award-winning puppeteer Ronnie Burkett and The Daisy Theatre gang to the Berkeley Street Theatre, for LITTLE DICKENS.

Making its Toronto premiere beginning November 23rd, LITTLE DICKENS is an outrageously irreverent cabaret-style re-telling of Charles Dickens' timeless classic A Christmas Carol, as only Ronnie Burkett can tell it; a marionette vaudeville mash-up of beautifully handcrafted characters, seasonal singalongs, cabaret renditions of beloved standards, and free-wheeling improvisation.

"We are absolutely delighted to have Ronnie Burkett back at Canadian Stage - the Toronto home to his work for many years," says Canadian Stage Artistic Director Brendan Healy. "Ronnie is truly a national treasure. Among many things I love about this piece is that he throws all expectations of a holiday show and Dickens' A Christmas Carol out the window, to create something so entertaining, salty, and outright hilarious."

In this 'adults only' re-imagining, reserved for audiences over sixteen, The Daisy Theatre's Esmé Massengill is Esmé Scrooge, a fading actress wallowing in spiteful self-pity and a tart tyrant who viciously berates her mild-mannered backstage assistant, Bob Cratchit. She's visited by several well-meaning relatives, including a tofurkey-chowing millennial and two crusty old thespians looking for some arts funding. With the ever-changing content and nightly improv, each performance will be different, daring and on the edge.

LITTLE DICKENS first premiered at Vancouver's The Cultch in 2017, four years after Burkett debuted his improvised cabaret show The Daisy Theatre in 2013 at Toronto's Luminato Festival. Featuring a cast of over 40 marionette characters, The Daisy Theatre is Burkett unleashed and unscripted with Burkett manipulating and voicing his characters through variety acts, impromptu monologues, musical numbers, and audience participation.

Captivated by puppetry since the age of seven, Ronnie Burkett began touring his shows at the age of fourteen. His Theatre of Marionettes was formed in 1986, playing on Canada's major stages and abroad. Ronnie received the 2009 Siminovitch Prize, The Herbert Whittaker Drama Bench Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Theatre, a Village Voice OBIE Award and four Citations of Excellence from the American Center of the Union Internationale de la Marionnette. In 2019, Ronnie Burkett was appointed as an Officer of The Order of Canada.

He has achieved international success with productions including Penny Plain, Billy Twinkle, 10 Days on Earth, Provenance and the "Memory Dress Trilogy" of Tinka's New Dress, Street of Blood and Happy - all of which ran at Canadian Stage in Toronto.

Tickets for LITTLE DICKENS range from $29-$79. Single tickets are now available at canadianstage.com. This production runs from November 23rd to December 18th, 2022, with performances at 8:00pm Tuesday - Saturday, and a 2:00pm matinee on Sundays. For more information and tickets visit www.canadianstage.com.

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