Sidemart Theatrical Grocery presents The Canadian English Premiere of ILLUSIONS

Award-winning Canadian theatre company, SideMart Theatrical Grocery is proud to present the English language Canadian premiere of ILLUSIONS by one of Russia's foremost playwrights, Ivan Viripaev, from April 21 - May 7, 2017 at Crows Theatre.

The production proudly boasts an all-star cast of two real life couples Brett Donahue, and Gemini Award-winner Laurence Dauphinais, as well as Marie-Ève Perron, and Andew Shaver. These actual relationships add a true-life dimension to the complex tale of four intertwining lovers.

Passion and death, loyalty and betrayal, truth and fiction, hope and despair, ILLUSIONS playfully unravels the paradoxical lives of two couples. A story of friendship, and crossed loves, this is the first English translation of the work of one of Russia's foremost contemporary playwrights.

Ivan Viripaev (playwright) is a Russian playwright, director, screenwriter, film director, actor and art director of Praktika Theatre in Moscow. His theatre works include Dreamworks (2011), Illusions (2011), Comedy (2010), Delhi Dance (2009), July (2006), amongst many others. Awards include the Golden Mask Award for Oxygen, and the International New Drama Festival Award for Genesis and Jury. Viripaev is also the winner of several prestigious film awards including the Grand Prix at the 22nd international Film Festival in Warsaw.

Artistic Director of SideMart Theatrical Grocery, Andrew Shaver (co-director/second man) is an Award-winning performer, producer and stage director. Shaver recently became the first Anglophone to direct the French Language mega-musical Grease for Juste Pour Rire (Just For Laughs) in Montreal. Shaver has also spent five seasons with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Recent acting credits include 39 Steps (Soulpepper), Noise Off (Segal Centre), and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Grand Theatre, London).

For thirteen years, Paul Flicker (co-director) served as the producer and then artistic producer of the Segal Centre for the Arts in Montreal, where he produced countless theatre, music and dance productions. He is currently working with composer Judith Lechter on her new oratorio, Nostra Aetate, premiering later this year in Montreal at Place des Arts' Maison Symphonique.

This powerful ensemble features Brett Donahue (first man), whose recent theatre credits include The Whipping Man (Obsidian Theatre), and We Are Proud to Present...(Theatre Centre). Notable TV/film roles include portraying JFK in The Kennedys After Camelot, as well as The Shape of Rex, Suits, and Republic of Doyle. Laurence Dauphinais (first woman) won a Gemini last year for her performance in the TV5 project Écoute cette histoire. Her most recent theatre credits include Five Faces for Evelyn Frost (Canadian Stage and Théâtre Français), and the upcoming production of Siri (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Marie-Ève Perron's (second woman) recent credits include Grease (Juste Pour Rire), and Rick Miller's adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Grand Theatre, London). Marie-Ève also had a 7-year international collaboration with writer-director Wajdi Mouawad, starring in Foret, Littoral, Le sang de Promesse and Des femmes. She also created, and starred in the TV show FranceKBECK, winning the Best Actress award at the Festival Series Mania in Paris, in 2014, and has starred in several TV shows including Les Invicinbles, and Radio Canada's hit Les Simone.

Founded in 2006 in Montreal, SideMart earned over 30 Montreal English Theatre Award nominations, and remains one of the city's most memorable theatre ensembles. In 2013, SideMart moved its operations to Toronto, and by this time the company had already produced 14 shows, including the world premiere of Morris Panych's Gordon, the Canadian premiere of Mark Doherty's Trad, and SideMart's original musical Haunted Hillbilly.

Over the last four years in Toronto, SideMart has presented over a dozen productions in their first local theatre space, The Grocery, including the Dora Award-winning production of Moment, as well as two original SideMart creations: The Ballad of the Young Offender, and Out of the Woods. Andrew also directed the SideMart co-production of world premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner John Patrick Shanley's A Woman is a Secret at Theatre Centre in 2015. Most recently, SideMart's dramatic Montreal-based history was turned into a play called A City by Greg MacArthur and received its world premiere in Toronto by Necessary Angel, directed by Jennifer Tarver.

Sidemart Theatrical Grocery presents

ILLUSIONS

by Ivan Viripaev

Starring Brett Donahue, Laurence Dauphinais, Marie-Ève Perron, and Andrew Shaver

Set and Costume Design by James Lavoie - Lighting Design by Martin Sirois

Crows Theatre, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto, Ontario

April 21 - May 7, 2017

Opening Night: April 21 at 8:30pm

Previews: April 19 & 20 at 8:30pm

Wednesday to Saturday at 8:30pm • Saturday & Sunday matinees at 2:30pm

Ticket Prices: $35 (student and seniors $25) and can be purchased in person at the Crows Theatre Box Office, by calling 647-341-7390 ext. 1010 or online at http://crowstheatre.com/whats-on/view-all/illusions

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