2017 Season
Welcome to World Stage Redux In 1986, Harbourfront Centre began a journey called World Stage. After 21 extraordinary seasons, we continue to be Toronto’s window to the most exceptional contemporary theatre, dance and performance, and to bring the exemplars of global culture to our city – to our home. World Stage Redux is your chance to see the works that have shifted the boundaries of the contemporary – that have amazed, moved, and stirred us to debate. We promise that in revisiting these shows from past seasons, what you have seen before, you will see again, anew. This is not the same river. From the fierce longing and love of Kyle Abraham’s The Radio Show to the wondrous transformations of choreographic chameleon Kitt Johnson’s Rankefod, World Stage finds common ground in a wide range of formally diverse works. It reveals a conversation through artistic practice that starts with My Arm, the breakout solo of UK provocateur Tim Crouch, and runs for a decade, right up to Philip McKee’s understated conversation with the lioness of Canadian theatre, Clare Coulter. With works by Daniel Barrow and William Yong we touch the spectacular via the analogue and the digital. And with the return of Yael Farber/Baxter Theatre Centre’s Mies Julie and Hotel Modern’s KAMP (CAMP), World Stage Redux reaffirms the power of the stage as monument, as a place of memory and forgetting. Almost as important as these extraordinary works is the context and the spirit in which we share them. With the return to a festival format, World Stage welcomes you to Toronto’s waterfront for three weeks of live performance and inspiring conversation. We invite you to join us.
The World Stage Team
About World Stage Over the last 30 years, Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage has evolved as a varied season of international performance. This year, World Stage continues to pursue a bold curatorial vision by assembling and presenting today’s performance leaders in order to develop our understanding of the contemporary. World Stage Redux comes at a natural point of reflection and transformation, a time full of new tests of our collective capacity to care for each other and dream together. In this moment, we look back at our history of bold programming and celebrate the exceptional artistry that has never failed to show us who we are. A lot has changed over the past three decades. But sometimes a journey takes you right back to where you started. Seeking out new perspectives, unearthing the unexpected and celebrating the passion, wisdom and humanity that performance allows us to share is just as important today as it was back then.
Harbourfront Centre is a Canadian charity operating the 10 prime acres of Toronto’s central waterfront as a free and open public site. We celebrate the multiplicities of cultures that comprise Canada and enliven the city through the creative imaginations of artists from across the country and around the globe.
April 2017 Calendar
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Monday
04
Tuesday
05
7pm
Rankefod
7pm
HCT
8pm HCT
Pre-show Tea
Rankefod Opening
ST
8pm ST
8pm HCT
10
Monday
11
Tuesday
12
7pm
The Radio Show
7pm
FDT
8pm FDT
Pre-show Tea
ST
The Radio Show Opening
Wednesday LEAR: A Retrospective Pre-show Tea
LEAR: A Retrospective Opening
Rankefod
+ Talkshow
Wednesday Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry
Pre-show Tea 8pm ST
Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry Opening
8pm FDT
FDT
The Radio Show + Talkshow
Fleck Dance Theatre 207 Queens Quay West
HCT
Harbourfront Centre Theatre
17
Monday
18
Tuesday
19
Wednesday
7pm
My Arm
7pm
Mies Julie
231 Queens Quay West
ST
Studio Theatre 235 Queens Quay West
BXS
Boxcar Social 235 Queens Quay West
For information on Relaxed Performance see page 21.
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ST
8pm ST
Pre-show Tea
My Arm
Opening
HCT
8pm
Pre-show Tea
Mies Julie
HCT
Opening
8pm
My Arm
ST
+ Talkshow
06
Thursday
07
Friday
08
Saturday
09
7pm
Steer
8pm
Rankefod
4pm
Rankefod
2pm
FDT
8pm FDT
8pm ST
Pre-show Tea
Steer
Opening
LEAR: A Retrospective + Talkshow
HCT
8pm ST
8pm FDT
ST
HCT
LEAR: A Retrospective
8pm
Steer
8pm
+ Talkshow
ST
Sunday LEAR: A Retrospective
LEAR: A Retrospective Steer
FDT
9:30pm Saturday Night BXS
Social
13
Thursday
14
Friday
15
Saturday
16
Sunday
7pm
KAMP (CAMP)
8pm
KAMP (CAMP)
8pm
The Radio Show
2pm
KAMP (CAMP)
HCT
8pm HCT
8pm
Pre-show Tea
HCT
+ Talkshow
KAMP (CAMP)
8pm
Opening
ST
KAMP (CAMP)
HCT
The Radio Show
9:30pm Saturday Night
Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry
10pm
BXS
FDT
8pm
HCT
FDT
ST
Social
Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry
+ Talkshow
20
Thursday
21
Friday
22
Saturday
8pm
Mies Julie
8pm
My Arm
2pm
Mies Julie
HCT
+ Talkshow
ST
8pm HCT
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Sunday
HCT
Mies Julie
4pm
My Arm
ST
8pm
Mies Julie
HCT
9:30pm Saturday BXS
Night Social
3
Rankefod Kitt Johnson X-Act
Denmark
Dates
Pre-show Tea
Talkshow
Duration
April 4, 8pm
April 4, 7pm
April 5
50 minutes
April 5, 8pm
Venue
Price
Harbourfront Centre Theatre
$35
Original World Stage Performance
April 7, 8pm April 8, 4pm
2008
Kitt Johnson is one of Denmark’s most acclaimed dancer-choreographers. In her work, where imagination determines outward expression, expressionism and virtuosity find rare harmony. Her solo, Rankefod, is widely considered one of the most important Danish dance works of this century. As a performer, Johnson appears capable of movements that have their source in pre-conscious, biological intention. In Rankefod – the Danish word for barnacles – she distils movement from the far corners of the natural world. Her translation of this vocabulary onto the human body is so successful, so seamless, that humanity itself appears insubstantial. As it flickers, dissolves and reforms, Homo sapiens registers as a simple biological dance move performed by something much older and deeper. Transcendent and unadorned Rankefod electrified Toronto audiences in 2008, receiving a Dora Award nomination and establishing itself as an emblematic World Stage presentation. More than a decade after its premiere, Rankefod’s imagery remains tenacious.
“A five star masterpiece that continues to be as captivating as when first premiered.” — Berlingske Tidende
4
5
Photo: Per Morten Abrahamsen
LEAR: A Retrospective
Co-produced by Harbourfront Centre
Philip McKee + Clare Coulter
Canada
Dates
Pre-show Tea
Talkshow
Duration
April 5, 8pm
April 5, 7pm
April 6
60 minutes
Venue
Price
Studio Theatre
$35
Original World Stage Performance
April 6, 8pm April 7, 8pm April 8, 8pm April 9, 2pm
2013
Between 2011 and 2014, Canadian theatre legend Clare Coulter performed the role of Shakespeare’s King Lear three times. Each time she was directed by Philip McKee, and each time both of them thought it would be the last; because, in their effort to tell King Lear’s story of generational inequality, of the struggle to both give and receive a legacy, they ended up living it instead. Intimate, sculptural, and immediate, the original production LEAR was developed through Harbourfront Centre’s HATCH performance residency program and premiered at World Stage 2013. LEAR: A Retrospective propels the improbable collaboration of this work into a new form. It is a performance that attempts to examine conflicts without succumbing to them, one that escapes the orbit of Shakespeare by using attachment theory and autobiography in an intergenerational dialogue about what is most inevitable.
“Not your average take on Lear ... fascinating.” — NOW Magazine
A Relaxed Performance will take place on April 9 at 2pm. See page 21.
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7
Photo: Guntar Kravis
Steer Zata Omm Dance Projects
Canada
Dates
Pre-show Tea
Talkshow
Duration
April 6, 8pm
April 6, 7pm
April 7
55 minutes
Venue
Price
Fleck Dance Theatre
$35
Original World Stage Performance
April 7, 8pm April 8, 8pm
2016
This solo work from the groundbreaking Zata Omm imagines a human trajectory where the boundary between flesh and technology becomes indistinct. What will our bodies mean and look like with the advancement of the technological age? As both question and answer, Steer reveals visionary worlds through movement, sound and a fusion of biology and technology. Gathering sensory data from the dancer – using real-time motion capture, an infrared camera and motion sensors – the technology interprets the dancer’s movements and produces interactive effects instantaneously. In this stunning work, choreographer William Yong continues to explore the intersection of the human and the digital and continues to pursue his company’s objective – to create multidisciplinary contemporary dance works through the integration of technology and other art forms. First produced with Harbourfront Centre in 2016, after the world premiere of Zata Omm’s 2015 Dora Award–nominated vox:lumen, Steer reveals how imagination is just another name for the blurry line between question and answer.
“Yong is taking a journey into the unknown.” — Toronto Star
8
9
Photo: David Hou
The Radio Show Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion
United States
Dates
Pre-show Tea
Talkshow
Duration
April 11, 8pm
April 11, 7pm
April 12
70 minutes
April 12, 8pm
Venue
Price
Fleck Dance Theatre
$45
Original World Stage Performance
April 13, 8pm April 15, 8pm
2014
Kyle Abraham is a self-styled “rave kid” who has become one of the foremost talents in American contemporary dance. The choreography of this MacArthur Genius award-winner is buoyant and irrepressibly sensual, and proudly wears its multitude of signifiers: queer, black, high modernist and popular. Originally a 2014 World Stage presentation, The Radio Show brought Abraham into new emotional and narrative territory. It is an elegy to the Motown and hip-hop radio stations that were the soundtrack of Abraham’s youth in Pittsburgh. When these stations abruptly went off the air in 2009, this soundtrack, and the conversation about community that flourished in the gaps between tracks, stopped. In the same year, Abraham’s father lost his ability to speak due to Alzheimer’s-induced aphasia. In the sudden silence, Abraham picked up the pieces – the songs, the words, the static – and made a dance. Revealing rituals of listening and the spaces of silence, The Radio Show is a memorial that moves to the music.
“It’s smart and self-aware, and luscious too: the complete package.” — New York Times
10
11
Photo: Steven Schreiber
Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry Daniel Barrow
Canada
Dates
Pre-show Tea
Talkshow
Duration
April 12, 8pm
April 12, 7pm
April 13
45 minutes
Venue
Price
Studio Theatre
$25
Original World Stage Performance
April 13, 8pm April 15, 10pm
2008
Daniel Barrow’s work is impossible to contain and frequently takes the form of subtle stage works of “manual animation.” At the centre of his decidedly analogue set of tools – which include VHS, overhead projection, optical effects and live storytelling – is Barrow, the performer, manipulating his involving and frequently unnerving illustrations by hand. Witty, vulnerable and at times grotesque, Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry is the story of an art school failure turned garbage man who attempts to create a catalogue of the city’s inhabitants. But this dream is doomed when the artist’s modus operandi – spying through windows and searching through garbage for information – is appropriated by a homicidal maniac who follows behind him, killing all who appear in his masterwork. The Winnipeg-born Sobey Art Award winner is a darkly insightful Canadian original. This work simultaneously effaces and confirms the essence of theatre through its runaway allegory – evoking nostalgia even as it expertly dissects it.
“Invites viewers into a nostalgic, magical world.” — XTRA! Magazine
12
13
Photo: Valerie Sagin
KAMP (CAMP) Hotel Modern
Netherlands
Dates
Pre-show Tea
Talkshow
Duration
April 13, 8pm
April 13, 7pm
April 14
60 minutes
April 14, 8pm
Venue
Price
Harbourfront Centre Theatre
$35
Original World Stage Performance
April 15, 8pm April 16, 2pm
2013
Hotel Modern’s masterwork KAMP (CAMP) is, in every way, a performance of necessity and a daring representation of what human nature is capable of. First shared in Toronto by World Stage in 2013, KAMP (CAMP) presents a single, unremarkable day in a city purpose-built for the annihilation of human life. An enormous scale model of Auschwitz fills the stage. It contains overcrowded barracks, a railway track and a gateway with the infamous slogan, “Arbeit macht frei.” This colossal scale model is inhabited by thousands of 8cm-tall handmade puppets that represent the prisoners and their executioners at an astonishing ratio of 1 to 10. Filming the events with tiny cameras and setting the puppets to tasks both horrific and banal, the extraordinary artists of the Netherlands’ Hotel Modern themselves become akin to war reporters, making the audience an eyewitness. Their resolution in this work is to salvage human creativity from the banality of evil and depravity. The performance is as vital today as it has ever been.
“A major technical and creative achievement.” — Huffington Post
14
15
Photo: Herman Helle
My Arm Tim Crouch
United Kingdom
Dates
Pre-show Tea
Talkshow
Duration
April 18, 8pm
April 18, 7pm
April 19
60 minutes
April 19, 8pm
Venue
Price
Studio Theatre
$25
Original World Stage Performance
April 21, 8pm April 22, 4pm
2005
Endlessly curious about the possibilities of stage and audience, Tim Crouch is not just a superlative actor. He is one of the most influential experimental playwrights working in the English language today. His Obie and Fringe First Award-winning work of the last decade includes the polarizing Royal Court production, The Author, as well as An Oak Tree, which casts a new actor in its central role every night. The secret of Crouch’s impact is his insistence that the most interesting effect of theatre occurs in the minds of the audience, in the collective capacity for imagination. My Arm, his first play, is the story of a man who has lived for thirty years with one arm above his head, told with all the authenticity and detail of a first-person autobiography. Performing this important production for the first time in North America in almost ten years, Crouch leaves his arms casually by his sides.
“Crouch is the most engaging of performers, and he is actually exploring on stage the nature of art and performance itself.” — The Guardian
A Relaxed Performance will take place on April 22 at 4pm. See page 21.
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17
Photo: Julia Collins
Mies Julie Yael Farber/Baxter Theatre Centre
South Africa
Dates
Pre-show Tea
Talkshow
Duration
April 19, 8pm
April 19, 7pm
April 20
90 minutes
April 20, 8pm
Venue
Price
Harbourfront Centre Theatre
$45
Original World Stage Performance
April 21, 8pm April 22, 2pm & 8pm
2014
Mies Julie is South African theatre-maker Yael Farber’s unforgettable representation of the echoes of injustice in a post-traumatic society. Twenty-three years after the end of apartheid, the white daughter of a landowner and the black son of her father’s servant wage love and war in the kitchen of a desolated South African farmstead, living the tensions and traumas of contemporary South Africa. Through Farber’s incisive vision, August Strindberg’s classic story of class and gender in conflict comes to startling new life. Yael Farber is one of the major voices of contemporary South Africa. Over the last decade, she has earned a global reputation for her devastating portraits of human nature. Her Mies Julie was the unqualified favourite of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at its international premiere in 2012. Presented by World Stage in 2014, it remains one of the most sought-after touring productions in the world.
“A benchmark of excellence.” — The Telegraph
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19
Photo: Mark Wessels
Get Your Tickets Now
In Person
235 Queens Quay West
Online
harbourfrontcentre.com
By Phone
416 973 4000
Ways to Save on World Stage The Flex Pass allows you to buy now and choose which shows to see later.
$98 $160
4-Ticket Flex Pass* Only available until March 12
Festival Pass*
Save up to 45%
Only available until April 4
CultureBreak
Seniors & Groups
Arts Workers
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65 years and older or groups of 10+
Work in the arts?
$15
20% OFF
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Promo code: YOUTHWS
By phone and in person only
By phone and in person only
Valid photo ID required when picking up tickets at the Box Office.
Valid photo ID required when picking up tickets at the Box Office.
Proof of employment required when picking up tickets at the Box Office.
* Pass Terms
Tickets can be redeemed for participating World Stage shows over the phone or in person. Seats are subject to availability. Pass credit is non-refundable and expires April 22, 2017. Flex passes are only available for purchase until March 12, 2017 and Festival Passes are available for purchase until April 4, 2017. A flat service charge of $12 per person, per pass, applies to all passes. Passes are only available by phone or in person.
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More World Stage Pre-show Teas Every opening night before the show, join World Stage’s Scholars-In-Residence Matt Sergi and VK Preston for an enlightening discussion about the show.
Talkshows After the second performance of each production, join us for a moderated talkshow with the artists. It’s the most direct backstage access you can get.
Saturday Night Socials Each Saturday night, join World Stage artists at Boxcar Social’s Harbourfront Centre location for a drink, to talk and celebrate together as a community.
Join the Conversation Twitter @WorldStageTO
Facebook /WorldStageTO
Instagram @WorldStageTO
YouTube harbourfrontcentre
Commitment to Accessibility Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage is committed to providing a welcoming and accessible destination for all theatre lovers. For more information on assistive devices, support people and other services, please visit harbourfrontcentre.com/accessibility.
Relaxed Performance For the second year, World Stage continues its commitment to Relaxed Performance. These performances acknowledge the darkened and silent theatre experience as isolating for some. They include gentler lighting and sound, as well as a relaxed attitude to noise and movement. We want everyone to feel comfortable in our spaces.
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Support Us
Donors make it possible to offer free music, movies, dancing, children’s programming and amazing festivals all summer long. Your gift to Harbourfront Centre means that culture will continue to thrive at the heart of Toronto’s waterfront. Please make a donation by calling 416 952 4746 or donate online at harbourfrontcentre.com
Site Partners
Corporate Partner
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Programming Partners
Official Suppliers
Explore Harbourfront Centre Before the show, experience what makes Harbourfront Centre Toronto’s unique destination for creativity and expression.
Boxcar Social
Harbourfront Centre Shop
Relax and enjoy a 10% World Stage discount on food at our new lakeside location.
From April 4–22, show your ticket stub to receive 15% off on all purchases in our shop.
Visual Arts
Craft & Design Studios
Discover contemporary art in our galleries and visit the Power Plant for lectures, tours and exhibitions.
Watch masters at work in our fully equipped facility, or join a class and become a master yourself.
Why not make a day of it? For hours of operation, please visit harbourfrontcentre.com
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Celebrate Canada this Summer with Sounds of Home Our Home on Native Land
Shield to Shore
July 1–3 Celebrate life on Turtle Island and revel in Canada’s indigenous cultures as we explore alternative narratives that make up the history and identity of our country.
July 14–16 Explore the music and culture of the St. Lawrence river basin through contemporary trends, traditional genres and the kaleidoscope of styles that is Canada’s East.
Prairie to Pacific
Northern Passages
July 7–9 Go west! Celebrate the broad array of music, dance and activities that represent the beautiful patchwork of Canada’s western region.
July 22–24 Join an Arctic-bound adventure heading due north from the 49th parallel and highlighting the perspectives of new and noted northern musicians, artists and storytellers.
Culture lives here
harbourfrontcentre.com
Venues LO W
LA K ES
ER
HORE
B LV D
. W.
SI M C O E ST
Q U EE
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AY NS QU
W.
QUEEN’S QUAY TERMINAL 207 QUEENS QUAY WEST (3RD FLOOR) BILL BOYLE ARTPORT (MAIN BUILDING) 235 QUEENS QUAY WEST
231 QUEENS QUAY WEST
BOXCAR SOCIAL
NATREL POND/RINK
Getting Here BY TTC
KIN G ST. W.
Board the 509 or 510 streetcar from Union Station, Exhibition Place or Spadina Ave.
W EL L IN GTON ST. W.
BY FOOT
ROGERS CENTRE
AIR CANADA CENTRE
B R EM NER B LVD.
REES ST.
G L A KES H O R E B LVD. W. 509/510
Q U EEN S QUAY W.
UNION STATION
IN ARD
ER
EXP
RE
A SSW
Y
BAY ST.
CN TOWER
LOWER SI MCO E ST.
SPADINA AVE.
CONVENTION CENTRE
YO R K ST.
FR ON T ST.
From Union station, head south on York St. to Queens Quay West. BY CAR Take Lower Simcoe St. or turn on Queens Quay West from York St. to reach our parking lots. BY BIKE The Martin Goodman Trail leads right here and we have bicycle parking on site.
“A five star masterpiece” — Berlingske Tidende
Rankefod
“Fascinating” — NOW Magazine
LEAR: A Retrospective
“A journey into the unknown” — Toronto Star
Steer
“The complete package” — New York Times
The Radio Show
“A nostalgic, magical world” — XTRA! Magazine
Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry
“A major technical and creative achievement” — Huffington Post
KAMP (CAMP)
“Exploring on stage the nature of art and performance itself” — The Guardian
My Arm
“A benchmark of excellence” — The Telegraph
Mies Julie
235 Queens Quay West Toronto, Ontario M5J 2G8 Canada 416 973 4000 harbourfrontcentre.com Charitable registration number: 10746 6575 RR0003
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