Trade in your pencils, books, coffee and exams for a play program and a chocolate bar, then check out the city’s holiday theatre scene. There’s a plenty to see if you want help to forget the stress and mental scarring of the past semester.
A Christmas Carol
If you’ve just finished up an exam in the Hall building, you don’t have far to go to catch Geordie Productions and Concordia’s Department of Theatre’s magical co-production of A Christmas Carol – it’s playing in the basement at the D.B. Clarke Theatre.
Sure, Geordie puts on shows for kids, but at this stage of the semester, who doesn’t want to regress at little?
Throw together lavish Victorian costumes, sets and lighting, a few Christmas carols, and Charles Dickens himself, and you have a “spirited” rendition of the Christmas classic about a miser named Scrooge (David Francis) who is prompted to reform not by Oprah, but three ghosts.
This version was directed by Dean Patrick Fleming, and adapted by Montreal playwright Alexandria Haber, whose works have graced ZooFest and Centaur Theatre. A raft of Concordia talent is featured, including current student Shannon Hamilton, who sparkles as Ebenezer’s spring love, Belle.
No muppets or Jim Carrey, guaranteed.
Avail yourself of post-ghost Scroogeness by donating to Rue des Femmes at the end of the show.
Until Dec. 20 at the D. B. Clarke Theatre. Tickets $18 for students, $15 for kids.
514-845-9810.
Pam Dunn Write-On-Q Contest
Catch more Alexandria Haber in Infinitheatre’s yearly reading series, The Pipeline. She’s this year’s winner of the second annual Pam Dunn Write-On-Q playwriting contest, which spotlights new and developing Quebec theatre. Saturday night’s reading is Life Here After, Haber’s story about a teenager’s quest to find out the truth about her sister’s murder.
The reading series starts with last year’s winner, Arthur Holden, and his KENNEDY: THE MUSICAL, and concludes satirdau with Nick Carpenter’s The Return of Corporal Mazenet.
The Bain St-Michel, 5300 St-Dominique. Dec. 11-13 7 p.m. Free.
514-987-1774.
My Christmas in New York
The revamped Thé’tre Ste-Catherine takes a break from improv to stage new artistic director Alain Mercieca’s My Christmas in New York. It’s about two Quebecers who head down to the Big Apple to sell Christmas trees. Sounds like a plan.
Thé’tre Ste-Catherine, 264 Ste. Catherine. Dec. 9 to 12, 16 to 19. Tickets $12.
514-284-3939.
Haunted Hillbilly
A nice way to cap off 2009: country music, carnivals and vampires, or all of the year’s greatest fads, are rolled into a resurrection of sorts when Haunted Hillbilly takes the stage in a Sidemart Theatrical Grocery production. Hyram Woodside is an aspiring country musician who falls prey to an ambitious carnie named Nudie. The original was nominated for a handful of MECCA awards, so this restaging looks promising.
The Segal Centre, 5170 Cote-Ste-Catherine. Until Dec. 20. Tickets $20. Dec. 13 is pay what you can.
