Alberta Theatre Projects revealed its 2014-15 season lineup on March 5 the same day it launched the final edition of the playRites Festival. That event will be replaced with the Enbridge playRites Series of New Canadian Plays fulfilling the company’s promise to continue premièring new work during its regular season.
One of those new works will be The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst by David van Belle and Eric Rose marking their second première on the ATP stage — the first was The Highest Step In the World at the 2010 festival (pictured) — and the company’s second collaboration with Ghost River Theatre. (The play will also be the duo’s second première in 2014-15 with Liberation Days in the lineup at Theatre Calgary.)
The plays in the 2014-15 season include:
• Venus in Fur (September 9 to 27) — Like last year’s excellent The Motherfucker With the Hat ATP will once again start the season off with a bang. This adult comedy by David Ives explores the art of role-playing and challenges ideas of sexual conventions and gender roles.
• Butcher (October 14 to November 1)— The first play in the new playRites series is a political thriller by Nicolas Billon winner of the 2013 Governor General’s Award for drama.
• Charlotte’s Web (November 27 to 31) — the annual Nexen Family Holiday Show.
• Mump & Smoot (January 20 to February 1) — Clowns from hell Michael Kennard and John Turner return with their first new show in four years. A co-presentation with One Yellow Rabbit as part of the HIgh Performance Rodeo.
• The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst (February 24 to March 14) — the second play in the new playRites series is based on the true story of a British amateur sailor who disappeared during a race around the world.
• Becky’s New Car (April 7 to 25) — the season closes with a "life-affirming comedy" by Stephen Dietz about one woman’s midlife U-turn.
