This installment of Theatre Crawl includes some shows I have attended over the past couple of weeks along with others that are just opening and will be onstage for a few more days.

Do not sleep on these shows. I think there is something for everyone in the listings here.

El Terremoto
Written by Christine Quintana
Directed by Guillermo Verdecchia
Tarragon Theatre Mainspace
On stage until April 21, 2024

From Dora-Award winning playwright Christine Quintana, El Terremoto is a dramatic comedy about how nothing matters, so everything matters.

Twenty years have passed since the three Jurado sisters lost their parents, and life just seems to continue on in their East Vancouver home. A birthday party, a failed proposal, and a missed connection fill the days and months until an earthquake nearly destroys the city, and brings forward a shocking turn of events that splits their world wide open.

I was able to attend a performance of El Terremoto and I enjoyed every minute. The writing is reflective of Latinamerican multi-generational homes, especially for those of us living abroad. The cast is great plus the humour and sensibility of each character makes this show a standout for me.

Women of the Fur Trade
Native Earth Performing Arts
Aki Studio
On stage until April 21, 2024

In eighteen hundred and something something, somewhere upon the banks of a Reddish River in Treaty One Territory, three very different women with a preference for twenty-first century slang sit in a fort sharing their views on life, love, and the hot nerd Louis Riel.

This lively historical satire of survival and cultural inheritance shifts perspectives from the male gaze onto women’s power in the past and present through the lens of the rapidly changing world of the Canadian fur trade.

Content Warning: Strong language (swearing), loud noises, gunshots, dead by hanging, racism, themes of war, genocide, violence.

Woking Phoenix
A Silk Bath Collective & Theatre Passe Muraille Co-production
Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace
On stage until April 27, 2024

Woking Phoenix is an epic exploration of two decades of a family’s survival. Woking Phoenix tells the story of three siblings, their mother, and their restaurant as they seek to find belonging within small-town Ontario. An intergenerational Chinese love story about creating community and the food that reminds us of home.

Co-created, co-written, and co-directed by Silk Bath Collective members Bessie Cheng, Aaron Jan, and Gloria Mok, Woking Phoenix has many inspirations, including the company’s shared family legacies of running multi-gen immigrant family businesses. In fact, Jan’s family owned a Chinese restaurant in small town Ontario called The Blue Tavern. After making two shows with science fiction elements, the artists were interested in focusing on an intergenerational family story and exploring the multifaceted food culture within the Chinese diaspora.

“A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney”
Outside the March & Soulpepper Theatre Production
The Young Centre for the Performing Arts
Extended until May 12, 2024

See Walt. See Walt run. See Walt run a multinational media conglomerate, remaking the world in his image. See Walt contemplate that image. See Walt contemplate cryonics. See Disney on ice. See Walt’s family. Hear Walt’s screenplay. See Walt’s family hear Walt’s screenplay. See Walt melt.

Despite its title, this is neither a reading nor a screenplay; or rather, it’s both, in a brilliant 70-minute stage play. Outside the March ‘reanimates the Head of Disney’ with this Toronto Premiere by Obie Award-winning dramatist Lucas Hnath.

I attended the opening of A Public Reading… and found it to be smartly written with a great mix of drama and humour. Excellent production all around which I highly recommend.