Coming to Toronto Fringe 2009: Candida

From Press Release

Shaw in The City! Returns to Toronto Fringe with Candida

Following up on its critically acclaimed, sold-out audience favourite Mrs. Warren’s Profession in the 2007 Toronto Fringe, Burning Passions Theatre returns to the 2009 Fringe Festival of Toronto with its “Shaw in the City!” production of Candida, Shaw’s classic take on love’s eternal triangle.

Directed by Laurel Smith, Candida will run July 1-12 (with an official opening July 1, dubbed “Candida Day”) at the air-conditioned Innis Town Hall, (at the corner of Sussex and St. George, just south of Bloor). Performances will be at 7:15 pm, Tuesday-Friday, Saturdays at 4:15 pm, Sundays at 1:15 pm.

    “This is Shaw’s take on the so-called Woman Question, during the first modern wave of feminism. It was a phenomenon that often left men with their jaws hanging, unable to comprehend women as anything more than either a doormat or an idealized figure beyond approach,” says Smith. “It’s also Shaw’s reaction to Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, though in this instance it’s a reversal of the key roles.”

     “Shaw in the City!” veterans returning for this new production include Jeffrey Aarles (playing Rev. Morell, Candida’s social gospel minister husband) and Daryl Taylor (playing Burgess, Candida’s conniving businessman father. Katie Lawson plays the title role, while Christopher Ryan is Marchbanks, the young poet obsessed with Candida. Rounding out the cast are David Kynaston playing Lexy, the young minister equally smitten with Candida, and Whitney Barris, Morell’s loyal (and lovestruck) secretary, Prossy.

    “Shaw’s genius is his mix of illustrating the pathos, anger, and flights of delirious fancy that define love, and all these characters are searching for what love truly means,” Smith says. “Candida also defies the unfair steroetype of Shaw as didactic lecturer,  and audiences will have an opportunity once again to see why he remains such a timeless playwright.”

Show Details
Candida, by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Laurel Smith
Starring: Jeffrey Aarles, Whitney Barris, David Kynaston, Katie Lawson, Christopher Ryan, Daryl Taylor
Playing Wednesday, July 1-Sunday July 12
Tuesday-Friday at 7:15 pm
Saturdays at 4:15 pm, Sundays at 1:15 pm
Tickets $10
www.burningpassionstheatre.com
Fringe hotline and tickets: (416) 966-1062, www.fringetoronto.com