Staging a Grand return: London theatre welcomes back live audiences Nov. 30
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London actor Alexis Gordon is returning to the role of Ma for the Grand Theatre’s highly anticipated restaging of Emma Donoghue’s stage adaption of Room.
Cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic just hours before opening, Room is one of five shows being offered to live audiences in a shortened season that opens Nov. 30 with Home for the Holidays, created and directed by artistic director Dennis Garnhum.
Tickets for all shows are now on sale and are priced at $50 for the Spriet Stage and $30 for shows on the smaller Auburn Development Stage.
“The arts have an uncanny ability to bring people together,” Garnhum said.
“After almost two years of isolation, uncertainty, and darkness, the arts are needed – perhaps more than ever – to help strengthen the social fabric of our communities, to heal us, and to lift us. As we emerge from the pandemic and into a new reality, the Grand is excited to raise the curtain on our bold new season, a season that will amplify five distinct perspectives, while still shining a light on the stories and the artists that unite us.”
Audiences also will get a look at the theatre’s new $9.5-million renovation.
Season highlights include:
• Home for the Holidays: A Theatrical Concert, created and directed by Garnhum, which will feature Gabi Epstein, Jacob MacInnis, Masini McDermott, Justin Eddy, Mark Uhre, Blythe Wilson and Gavin Hope. It runs Nov. 30 to Dec. 24.
• Room, written and adapted for the stage by Londoner Emma Donoghue with music and lyrics by Cora Bissett and Kathryn Joseph, directed by Cora Bissett. A co-production with Mirvish Productions and Covent Garden Productions, Room tells the story of a young woman, Ma, who is kidnapped and held by her captor and rapist in a small room where she gives birth to a son, Jack. They manage to escape but then face a world the boy didn’t know existed. It runs Jan. 11 to 29.
• Rubaboo – Songs and Stories with Andrea Menard. Rubaboo (derived from the Michif word for “leftovers stew” or “big pot”) is described in press materials as an “intimate, moving, and joyous journey” led by Menard, an award-winning Métis singer-songwriter and actor who starred in 2020’s production of Honour Beat, and featuring drums and guitar to play “songs of reconciliation, unity, love, frustration, and resilience.” It runs Feb. 1 to 12.
• Controlled Damage, by London-born Andrea Scott, shines a light on Canadian civil rights activist Viola Desmond who dared to sit in the whites-only seats of a Nova Scotia movie theatre and whose face now adorns the Canadian $10 bill. It runs Feb. 22 to March 12.
• Grow, with book by Matt Murray, music by Colleen Dauncey and lyrics by Akiva Romer-Segal, directed by Dennis Garnhum, was another highly anticipated production cancelled in 2020 by the pandemic. Inspired by the Toronto show, Rumspringa Break, Grow tells the story of twin Amish sisters on rumspringa, an Amish tradition that lets young people enter the outside world for a year or two before committing to the Amish lifestyle. The sisters find work at an illegal pot-growing operation. It runs March 29 to April 10.
The Grand is following provincial COVID regulations and will require patrons to show proof of vaccination before entering and mask up inside the theatre.
Season tickets are not being offered this season. Tickets can be purchased online at grandtheatre.com, by calling 519-672-8800, or visiting the box office at 471 Richmond St.
Deb Harvey, the Grand’s executive director, said it’s clear there’s pent-up demand for live theatre, noting subscribers “flooded” the box office with requests for tickets during a pre-sale.
“Not only was our pre-sale a great success, but it ultimately resulted in the biggest week of ticket sales in the Grand’s history,” she said. “As we had hoped, and as proven with these unbelievable sales, there is a huge demand for theatre in London and at its home theatre: the Grand.”
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