Stages and Pages is an ongoing partnership created between Ottawa Public Library (OPL) and the Great Canadian Theatre Company (GCTC).
The GCTC continues for its 2019-2020 season its well-established tradition of offering thought-provoking performances. Either before seeing the play or after your visit, take advantage of the Titles to Explore below for interesting readings on the different themes of the plays. If the link for Titles to Explore is not live, please check back closer to the performance date.
A team of OPL librarians reads the scripts for these plays. They gather lists of titles they recommend for you, the playgoer, to further explore the themes in the plays and to add to your experience of seeing the show. All the items listed are available at OPL.
The lists will be published below as the year progresses, and will be included on the Stages and Pages part of the GCTC program.
Bang, Bang October 22 - November 10, 2019
By Kat Sandler
Lila is a Black former police officer whose career ended after she shot an unarmed Black youth. Her story is fictionalized by Tim, a white playwright whose play about the shooting takes liberties with the facts. Now there’s talk of a film, and Tim visits Lila to discuss. What unfolds is a raucous struggle on the subjects of responsibility and representation, framed by Kat Sandler’s trademark wit.
Cottagers and Indians November 26 - December 15, 2019
By Drew Hayden Taylor
When Indigenous farmer Arthur Copper begins planting wild rice to reclaim lakeshores, the seeds bloom into a funny-yet-fiery exchange between the farmer and a white cottager, Maureen Poole. A microcosm of reconciliation, the confrontation traces issues of ownership and community.
Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools January 22 - February 9, 2020
Created by Evalyn Parry, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Erin Brubacher, and Elysha Poirier with Cris Derksen
A concert and a conversation, Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools is the meeting place of two people, and the North and South of our country. Inuk artist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and queer theatre-maker Evalyn Parry met on an Arctic expedition from Iqaluit to Greenland. Now sharing a stage, these two powerful storytellers map new territory together in a work that gives voice and body to the histories, culture, and climate we’ve inherited, and asks how we reckon with these sharp tools. In the Inuktitut language, when a knife is dull, it is said to “have no face.” The word “Kiinalik” translates to mean the knife is sharp — or, “it has a face.” Embodying the stories of their heritage, Evalyn and Laakkuluk put a face to the colonial histories, power structures and the changing climate that lie between them.
By Sean Devine
A Canadian premiere based on true events, Daisy tells the story of the Madison Avenue advertising team that set out to create the first modern political attack ad for the 1964 presidential campaign of Lyndon Johnson. Infamously known as the “Daisy ad,” it ran once and was immediately banned, but its impact is still felt. War was the objective. Peace was the bait. Everyone got duped.
Unholy April 21 - May 10, 2020
By Diane Flacks
In this witty, wild, and very relevant debate, four female panelists square off on one question: should women abandon religion? On one side, an ex-nun and an atheist pundit. On the other, a progressive Muslim lawyer and a Jewish scholar. As the play delves into the depths of the question, it reveals the complexities of the debaters.
