World Premiere Of THY WOMAN'S WEEDS Comes to Centaur Theatre

Centaur Theatre, in partnership with Repercussion Theatre and Tableau D'Hôte Theatre, and developed in collaboration with Playwrights' Workshop Montréal, have announced the long-awaited world premiere of THY WOMAN'S WEEDS by Erin Shields and directed by Amanda Kellock. This fun-filled production allows seven of Montreal's finest actresses to play satirically reimagined Shakespearean heroines in a behind-the-scenes look at Shakespeare today. THY WOMAN'S WEEDS is onstage from April 23, 2024 - to May 12, 2024, at Centaur Theatre. 

“I was interested in looking deeply at the female characters in Shakespeare's plays and how fewer female roles affect those stories and the actors performing them. A lot of laughter, a lot of venting, and a lot of rage later, I wrote what became a satire about the whole thing – the characters, the actors, the directors, the audiences that love Shakespeare but come face to face with constraints he faced when writing in a time when women weren't even allowed to perform." - Erin Shields, Director.

 

Inspired by the bard's comedic genius, this whimsical production promises an evening fit for a queen! Lady Capulet fights to stay relevant next to her fresh-faced Juliet, while Goneril clamours for a role as juicy as King Lear's. Hermia laments the dress code that prevents her from wearing whatever “woman's weeds” she pleases; Desdemona desperately needs an intimacy coach. As the director asks Lady Macbeth to sexualize her unsexing, Ophelia rails at the patriarchy from beyond her early grave. Meanwhile, the chorus of actresses playing each of these classic characters finds it increasingly challenging to hold their tongues about what they're going through on- and off-stage. 
 

Erin Shields is a Canadian playwright best known for progressive adaptations of classical texts, which bring neglected female characters centre stage. Her additional text for Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing at The Stratford Festival gives a voice to the silenced Hero at the play's climax. Queen Goneril, which premiered at Soulpepper Theatre in rep with King Lear, centres Lear's stifled daughters as they contend for power in a world that insists they remain powerless. Shields' illuminating and hilarious adaptation of Paradise Lost (Stratford Festival), which was the last play on Centaur's main stage before the pandemic, won the Quebec Writers Federation Prize for Playwriting. Her harrowing tragedy about sexual violence, If We Were Birds won the Governor General's Award for playwriting.

Amanda Kellock is a Montréal-based theatre-maker with a BFA in Theatre and Development from Concordia University and an MFA in Directing from the University of Ottawa. She is the Artistic Director of Repercussion Theatre and spearheaded their new play development program, Words With Will, where this play began. She has directed, written, or performed in dozens of projects over the past 20 years; some favourites include adapting and directing Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree (Geordie Theatre), directing an all-female Julius Caesar (Repercussion's Shakespeare-in-the-Park), working on an opera adaptation of Much Ado (Opera McGill/the Guildhall School in London), and starring in the solo show The Greatest Play in the History of the World at Hudson Village Theatre. 
 

Join in for an evening of laughs as we watch seven of Montreal's top actresses take on multiple Shakespearian roles with wit and bravura! This outstanding production stars Deena Aziz, Leni Parker, Joy Ross-Jones, Espoir Segbeaya, Warona Setshwaelo, Felicia Shulman, and Julie Tamiko Manning. THY WOMAN'S WEEDS was developed in collaboration with Playwrights' Workshop Montreal

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