2009 was marked by the deaths of some of Canada’s most notable theatre artists. Neil Munro, one of the country’s greatest stage directors, combined a distinctive style of multi-layer staging with penetrating insight. Douglas Campbell, Canada’s quintessential Falstaff, was also a pioneer in many fields in developing theatre in this country. Goldie Semple, one of Canada’s finest actors, exuded passion, intelligence and natural glamour.
Canada’s two largest theatre festivals were hit hard by the economic downturn in the States plus the new requirement for visiting Americans to carry passports. At the Stratford Festival attendance was down 4.7 per cent for the second year in a row, while at the Shaw it was down 6.5 per cent after a small uptick in 2008. Meanwhile, the Canadian Opera Company continued to maintain an amazing attendance rate of over 99 per cent.
THE TOP TEN OF 2009
Robert Lepage’s nine-hour Lipsynch at Luminato was supposed to be the highlight of the year but, while some sections were astonishing, at least a third of it proved deadly dull. Omitting shows that have previously appeared on this list, these were the best shows of 2009 in alphabetical order:
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
Mirvish brought us Tracy Letts’ devastating and devastatingly funny American family epic starring the incomparable Estelle Parsons.
BASH’D!
Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow turned the tables on hip-hop homophobia with this high-octane “gay rap opera.”
BILLY BISHOP GOES TO WAR
Soulpepper’s revival of this Canadian classic shows it has only improved with age.
NO EXIT
Kim Collier’s ingenious reimagining of Sartre’s existential classic visually turned the play inside out to make it more relevant than ever.
OF THE FIELDS, LATELY
Soulpepper staged David French’s sequel to Leaving Home with the same passion that made the earlier play so memorable.
THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT
BirdLand Theatre revived a show with too short a run in 2005 so that more people this year could marvel at Stephen Adly Guirgis’ all-encompassing intellectual satire.
THE NIGHTINGALE AND OTHER SHORT FABLES
Robert Lepage’s amazingly inventive puppet staging for the Canadian Opera Company showed the company and director at their boldest and best.
THE WALWORTH FARCE
Harbourfront’s World Stage presented the Canadian premiere of Enda Walsh’s brilliantly theatrical vision of a culture grotesquely turned in upon itself.
TSHEPANG
Harbourfront’s World Stage presented the Canadian premiere of Lara Foot Newton’s moving but disturbing portrait of post-apartheid South Africa.
UNE MAISON FACE AU NORD
Théâtre français de Toronto staged the best Canadian play of the year, Jean-Rock Gaudreault’s parable about culture and identity in the new century.
GREAT INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2009
ASHIQ AZIZ and PATRICK EAKIN YOUNG launched Opera Erratica with their Dido and Aeneas, a project uniting early music with modern technology.
CYNTHIA ASHPERGER and ADAM SEELIG independently staged insightful but very different productions of plays by Norwegian Jon Fosse, thus helping us to see why some claim Fosse as the world’s greatest living playwright.
GILLIAN GALLOW designed a fantastic set for the two parts of Theatrefront’s The Mill, one that completely filled the tiny Tank House stage and held many surprises.
MICHAEL HANRAHAN hilariously caught the absurd soul of British officiousness in Soulpepper’s Loot as Detective Truscott, who claims to be from the Municipal Water Board.
SEBASTIAN KROON revealed himself as a British Columbian heir to Daniel MacIvor in his gothic horror tale Circus.
NICOLA LIPMAN in the Tarragon’s Another Home Invasion gave a beautifully complex performance of a senior citizen all too aware of how she is losing control over her life.
RICK MILLER gave the most consistently outstanding performance in multiple roles and multiple languages in Robert Lepage’s Lipsynch.
YANNICK-MURIEL NOAH, the young Malagasy-Canadian soprano, made the most exciting debut of the season as Cio-Cio San in the COC’s Madama Butterfly.
ERICA PECK showed us she could be sassy in We Will Rock You, but the depth of her performance as Mary Maguire in The Boys in the Photograph proved she is a force to contend with.
JENNY SCHALL created incredibly clever costumes for the red light district’s production of The Misanthrope, wittily crossing the 17th century with the 21st.
DUBIOUS ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
THE “TONGUE NOT IN CHEEK” AWARD
Jonathan Garfinkel for his play House of Many Tongues, in which he repeated ad nauseam the idea that cunnilingus could bring peace to the Middle East.
THE “NEVER AGAIN” AWARD
Marcello Cabezas for his Fringe show Chooch, Bummy Bum etc. for trying to bring reality TV to the stage. Never again do I wish to listen to an actor’s actual voicemail from his D-list celebrity friends in the guise of entertainment.
THE “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?” AWARD
Small Wooden Shoe’s Dedicated to the Revolutions, in which theatre artists attempted, badly, to explain scientific concepts they did not, or could not be bothered to, understand. What’s next: Hairdressers Teach Shakespeare?