Soulpepper’s 2023 spring lineup includes adaption of a Chekhov classic, new jazz concert and Tony-nominated play about apartheid

Soulpepper, Toronto’s largest not-for-profit theatre company, announced Tuesday the four mainstage shows that will launch its 2023 season.

Two productions originally slated for 2020 will finally debut in person next year after being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The long-awaited premiere of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” in a new adaptation by Olivier Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens, will run from April 6 to 30. The comedy, which follows to lives of four artists on a Russian country estate, will be directed by Siminovitch Prize winner Daniel Brooks.

Also returning from the pandemic-shortened 2020 season is “Sizwe Banzi is Dead,” the Tony-nominated play that first premiered in 1972 and has since become a seminal piece of South African literature. Written by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, the play explores the social and political racism of the apartheid era, following a man who is compelled to shed his identity and assume the name of a dead man.

The Soulpepper production, running from May 25 to June 18, will be directed by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, artistic director of Obsidian Theatre Company.

The 2023 season will kick off in February with “English,” a new comedy by Iranian-American playwright Sanaz Toossi about four Iranian students preparing for an English exam. The production, directed by Anahita Dehbonehie and Guillermo Verdecchia, will run here Feb. 9 to March 5 before a two-week engagement in Montreal.

Joining the three plays next year is a new concert production honouring three trail-blazing women in jazz: Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. “Billie, Sarah and Ella: Revolutionary Women of Jazz” will be written and performed by Divine Brown.

“In programming our first selection of plays I wanted to celebrate global voices and perspectives and explore what it means to be part of a community, to find your place, a home,” said Soulpepper’s artistic director, Weyni Mengesha.

Shows for the rest of the 2023 season have yet to be announced. Soulpepper said Tuesday programming for the year will be divided into four distinct “acts.” Following the first four shows, the company’s summer slate will include a mainstage production and a series of pieces “that will bring music to the alleys of the Distillery Historic District.” The fall programming will be headlined by Her Words Festival, featuring world premieres by Canadian women playwrights. The year will close with a lineup of holiday-related programming.

Soulpepper also announced that each of the four productions programmed for the winter and spring of 2023 will include performances limited to 50 per cent capacity. The company is also introducing pay-what-you-choose pricing for all Tuesday mainstage performances. As well, Soulpepper will expand its Sun Life Financial Free 25 & Under program next season to allow patrons 25 and under to book free tickets in advance.

Soulpepper’s current season continues through December with three productions. “The Golden Record,” a concert inspired by the Voyager space program’s Golden Record, concludes its run Sunday. Next month, the company will host Bad Hats Theatre’s contemporary adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland” and revive the acclaimed production of “’Da Kink in My Hair,” directed by Mengesha.

Single tickets for next season’s three plays are now on sale. Performance dates for “Billie, Sarah and Ella: Revolutionary Women of Jazz” will be announced at a later date and tickets for the concert are not currently on sale.

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