Centaur Theatre unveils "shocking" line-up for its 46th season

It was a snowy, stormy late Wednesday afternoon in mid-March at the Centaur Theatre in Old Montreal, as artistic and executive director Roy Surette told a gathering of media, local actors, playwrights and directors, and Centaur personnel that for the company’s upcoming 46^th season, they were about to offer a line-up of shows that promised to be compelling, unexpected and with lots of sex and romance; in other words, a season that he promised will be “shocking and delightful”.

The cornerstone of the Centaur’s 2014-2015 season is their six mainstage subscription series productions (a series that has been quite successful lately; this year’s series is up by 331 subscriptions from last year’s total), in which two of them are world premieres by two well-known Montreal playwrights.

The six plays in the 2014-2015 subscription series are “Venus in Fur” (October 14 – November 9), a sexy battle of the sexes comedy that was a Broadway hit and based on the novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch; “Social Studies” (November 4 – November 30) a Canadian social comedy that involves a New Age single mother, her recently divorced daughter, and the Sudanese boy that the mother takes in as a boarder; “Terminus” (January 20 – February 15, 2015) is an internationally-acclaimed production that deals with three lost souls who are involved with the gritty underworld of Dublin, Ireland; “The Goodnight Bird” (February 24 – March 22) by Governor General Award-winning playwright Colleen Murphy, is about a long married couple who find out more about their married life … after the body of a vagrant falls and lands on their balcony; “The Envelope” (March 24 – April 19) is the new play by acclaimed Montreal playwright Vittorio Rossi, which gives an irreverent look at the “Made in Canada” film industry (a play, that Rossi contends, “was born out of my affection and love for my fellow actors”); and “Triplex Nervosa” (April 21 – May 17) by Montreal writer Marianne Ackerman about a young woman who buys a triplex in the Mile End district, and inherits all the residential baggage that goes with it.

And Centaur’s shocking 46^th season will also include the return of the musical “Spring Awakening” as its Brave New Looks selection, which will officially open the season; a new approach to the “Urban Tales” series, which will combine the Seven Deadly Sins with heavy metal music; the 18^th Wildside Festival; and the continuation of their popular Talkback series during the run of each mainstage production, which happens on the second Sunday and third Thursday during the run of each play.

To find out more about how “shocking” the Centaur’s 2014-2015 season will be, or to become a new subscriber (or renew your current subscription), call 514-288-3161, or go to www.centaurtheatre.com.