Trudeau Stories, racy puppets set for Magnetic North fest

News of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival's upcoming program lineup competed Wednesday with the revelation that blockbuster musical The Drowsy Chaperone will open the next National Arts Centre Theatre's season in Ottawa.

The NAC partners with Magnetic North organizers to present the annual, roving contemporary Canadian theatre festival, which alternates between Ottawa and other cities as a host site.

NAC English theatre chief Peter Hinton was on hand with Magnetic North artistic director Ken Cameron as the latter announced the 10 productions selected for this year's event June 3-13 in Ottawa.

Brooke Johnson's Trudeau Stories, based on her friendship with the late prime minister Pierre Trudeau, the gravity-defying play Skydive and The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan, from Calgary's Old Trout Puppet Workshop, are among this year's electic mix of productions from across Canada.

"One of the things Magnetic North does well [is that] we bring people together," Cameron said.

"We bring Ottawa artists together with producers from around Canada. We bring presenters from around Canada together with Canadian artists. And we bring theatre from coast to coast to Ottawa audiences."

The lineup will also include:

• Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, originally from Edmontons Catalyst Theatre.
• The Rideau Project, six works by Ottawa playwrights (English and French-language) performed at locations around downtown Ottawa.
• Fear of Flight, nine monologues set on a passenger plane by Canadian playwrights such as Daniel MacIvor and Judith Thompson, originally from Newfoundland and Labrador company Artistic Fraud.
• Eternal Hydra, by Anton Piatigorsky and originally from Crow's Theatre of Toronto.
• Jake's Gift, written and performed by Julia Mackey, based on interviews conducted with veterans and French locals upon the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
• Letters to My Grandma and Pyaasa, two 45-minute pieces by Toronto actress and writer Anusree Roy.
• Don't Blame the Bedouins, Ren-Daniel Dubois's play staged by students at the University of Ottawa's theatre department

Hinton's Drowsy Chaperone revelation was an early peek into what the NAC Theatre's English offerings would be for 2009-2010, the company's 40th anniversary season, which begins in October.

The explanation given for the early slip was that, during Magnetic North, Hinton would interview two of The Drowsy Chaperone's creators Don McKellar and Greg Morrison and that local choirs would be enlisted for an "afternoon of song" featuring music from the hit show.

In a related note, on Tuesday, NAC Theatre's French wing announced it is cancelling its May run of artistic director Wajdi Mouawad's play Le soleil ni la mort ne peuvent se regarder en face. The reason given was the withdrawal of an unidentified actor from the production, originally staged by French company Thtre national de Bordeaux en Aquitaine.

Mouawad will, however, give a reading of the play on May 26.