Tarragon Sets 2016-17 Season

Artistic Director Richard Rose and Managing Director Susan Moffat announced Tarragon Theatre's 2016-17 season today, featuring an ambitious and exciting mix of eight plays from across the country and abroad including two world premieres by Tarragon Playwrights-in-Residence, two Toronto premieres of Canadian plays - and playwrights - from Western Canada, two international productions receiving Toronto debuts, and two remounts: one, a smash hit that was a world premiere from Tarragon's 2014-15 season; the other, a critically-acclaimed touring production from last year's PANAMANIA Festival.

In announcing the lineup, Rose said, "This is a season that truly celebrates Canadian artists, whether in new works from across the country and at home, or interpreting important works from away. I am thrilled to introduce two new exhilarating voices from the Prairies to Tarragon audiences - Geoffrey Simon Brown and Arun Lakra - with Toronto premieres of two provocative and insightful pieces, The Circle and Sequence respectively. In addition, we are proud to present three productions from Tarragon's own Playwrights-in-Residence: world premieres that delve deeply into the world we live in today by Erin Shields and Maria Milisavljevic (The Millennial Malcontent and Peace River Country) along with a remount of Hannah Moscovitch's brilliant and unusual family drama, Infinity. We are also excited to bring two internationally acclaimed plays to Toronto audiences for the first time: the startling Broadway dramedy The Realistic Joneses by noted American dramatist Will Eno and the Toronto English-language premiere of the boundary-breaking contemporary romantic comedy, Midsummer (a play with songs) from across the pond by acclaimed Scottish playwright David Greig and singer-songwriter Gordon McIntyre. And we are delighted to kick off the tour of an important Canadian play, The Watershed by Montreal's Annabel Soutar, after its huge success at PANAMANIA last summer. In its upcoming 46th season, Tarragon continues to be a welcoming and nourishing home for Canadian theatre-making."

Tarragon's 2016-17 season opens in the Mainspace with The Watershed, the critically acclaimed play by Montreal documentary theatre artist Annabel Soutar, produced by Crow's Theatre and Porte Parole who created this extraordinary work that investigates the forces that are shaping the future of our natural resources. It earned raves in its premiere last summer as part of the PANAMANIA Festival, and will tour to Montreal and elsewhere following its run at Tarragon. Chris Abraham, Artistic Director of Crow's, again directs.

Following in the Mainspace is the penetrating dramatic comedy that garnered raves on Broadway: The Realistic Joneses about two suburban couples who seem to have even more in common than their identical homes and shared last names. It is written by Brooklyn-based Will Eno, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Thom Pain (based on nothing) which Tarragon produced in 2007. After a lauded run on Broadway in 2014 that earned three Drama League nominations and two Drama Desk awards, it now makes its Toronto premiere. Richard Rose, Tarragon's Artistic Director, directs.

The first Extraspace production of the season is the Toronto (and Ontario) premiere of The Circle, a hard-hitting, unsettling play about youth and belonging set in a high-school garage party by one of Canada's most exciting new young voices, Calgary's 27-year-old Geoffrey Simon Brown in his Tarragon and Toronto debut. Peter Pasyk, Tarragon's Urjo Kareda Resident Artist for 2013-14, directs.

The new year brings another Toronto (and Ontario) premiere: Sequence, a science thriller about luck, faith and math that won the 2013 Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding New Play by Calgary ophthalmologist, playwright, screenwriter and songwriter Arun Lakra, also in his Tarragon/Toronto debut. Tarragon's Associate Artistic Director Andrea Donaldson helms this work in the Mainspace.

Also in January, Toronto audiences have another chance to catch the smash hit remounted from Tarragon's 2014-15 season: Infinity, a gripping story about love and time written by in-demand Playwright-in-Residence Hannah Moscovitch that won the 2015 Dora Award for Outstanding New Play. A co-production with Volcano Theatre, Ross Manson, Artistic Director of Volcano, directs this buzz-worthy collaboration in the Extraspace.

Then follow two world premieres by Tarragon Playwrights-in-Residence: Peace River Country, an intense drama inspired by the real-life story of alleged eco-terrorist - and Reverend - Weibo Ludwig by Maria Milisavljevic, staged by Richard Rose (who steered Milisavljevic's last work for Tarragon, the memorable Abyss in the 2014-15 season) in the Extraspace; and The Millennial Malcontent by Governor General's Award winner Erin Shields, a meditation on the millennial generation loosely adapted from The Provoked Wife by Sir John Vanbrugh, directed by the former Artistic Director of the National Arts Centre English theatre, Peter Hinton in the Mainspace.

The season wraps up with the English-language, Toronto debut in the Mainspace of the internationally acclaimed "play with songs," Midsummer (a play with songs) by Scottish award-winning playwright David Greig in collaboration with Edinburgh indie rocker Gordon McIntyre, an hilarious tale of two 30-somethings turning a one-night-stand into a great lost weekend of bridge-burning, midnight trysts and self-loathing hangovers.
In addition to its work on the stage, Tarragon continues to build on the success of its new Workspace program that offers free development and performance space as well as administrative support to emerging artists and companies in the community. It is dedicated to growing its extensive youth programs and continuing to develop the country's most successful new play development program as well as its Beyond the Stage programming which includes Talkback Weeks, Lecture-Conversations, Tarragon Tasting Nights, and other audience engagement activities. Tarragon also continues to grow its initiatives to welcome underserved communities into the theatre, including subsidized student matinees, and its First Preview program offering complimentary tickets to community partners. As well, Tarragon offers a Rush Ticket policy of $15 a ticket for almost every performance throughout the season.

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