Openings We're Tracking This Week, October 31-November 6, 2011

Jake's Gift, Lunchbox (photo credit: Benjamin Laird)

Hopkins and Jessica B. Hill
at Segal (photo:
Andrée Lanthier)

The Lunchbox Theatre in Edmonton is calling Jake's Gift by Julia Mackey a "Canadian sensation" and there is no doubt the story of the show, performed by the author, strikes a chord: a reluctant vet returns to France to celebrate D-Day and has to deal with the ghosts of the hideous battle.

At Segal in Montreal, they are declaring The Play's The Thing. This is arguably Ferenc Molnar's more popular work (until people realize the musical Carousel is based on his Liliom). Segal is giving the backstage comedy the full treatment with Repercussion Theatre boss, Paul Hopkins, in the cast and musician Dmitri Marine providing soundscape.

Could there be a better season to present an enigmatic masterpiece than the bleak days of November, and Sudbury Theatre Centre is doing the most enigmatic of them all with their new production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot. Godot has menace, whimsey, and enough mystery to keep theatrephiles' chatter going well past the evening's end. Norm Foster, the country's most performed playwright, performs!