Coming to Toronto Fringe 2009: ARTIFACTS

From Press Release

AWARD-WINNING TEAM PUTS ON POLITICAL DRAMA ‘ARTIFACTS’ AT TORONTO FRINGE FESTIVAL

Artifacts is a play that asks where our commitments should lie when our professional duties clash with our ethnic identities. Michael is a dying archaeologist who together with his lover and research assistant Sandra uncovers an artifact that may stand as proof that Aboriginal peoples were not the first peoples in North America. Through engaging with the strange farmer who found the artifact and the Native council chief who wishes for its destruction, Sandra is caught between two worlds – her career as an archaeologist and her heritage as an Aboriginal woman.

Artifacts is written by Anthony Furey (who also stars in the Bloor Cinema’s Fringe version of Blue Velvet and is developing the feature film Utopia with actor Jon Voight) and directed by Jani Lauzon (Gemini winner and Juno and Dora nominee).

The play stars Bruce Hunter (Gemini winner for Puppets Who Kill; Good Will Hunting; The Red Green Show), Billy Merasty (Terence Malick’s The New World, star of Elijah: The Elijah Harper Story), Richard Denison (Cirque du Soleil ringmaster) and Reneltta Arluk (fresh from touring Northern Ontario with Magnus Theatre).

The sensational design team includes sound designer Marc Nadjiwan and set designer Andy Moro (both current Dora nominees for Agokwe) and lighting designer Andre du Toit (SummerWorks hits In Full Light and The White Bone).

Audiences will be thrilled to see Bruce Hunter – who has many fans for his comedic talents – playing against type as a dying professor. Also fans of Jani Lauzon’s many starring theatre roles will delight in seeing how equally skilled she is as a director. Anthony Furey, whose national op-eds and essays have always stirred debate, continues to provoke discussion through this play on Canadian identity.

Theatre Passe-Muraille Mainspace

16 Ryerson Ave. (one block north of Queen St., one block east of Bathurst St.

Showtimes:

July 2nd, 6pm, July 4th, 2:15pm, July 5th, 7:30pm, July 6th, 5:15pm, July 8th, 9:30pm, July 9th, Noon, July 10th, 11:30pm

For more information: www.artifactsplay.blogspot.com / www.fringetoronto.com

Tickets: $10, 416-966-1062

No latecomers admitted.