For the Townsman
The award-winning Arts Club production of Onegin embarks on a Western Canada tour this month, including Cranbrook’s Key City Theatre on Tuesday February 6.
Produced through the Arts Club’s Silver Commissions Project (developing new plays since 2006), Onegin premiered in Vancouver in the spring of 2016 and was met with critical acclaim. The show collected ten wins at the 2016 Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, making history as the first production to win all but one of the awards in the large theatre category. The wins included Outstanding Actor and Actress, Supporting Actor, Lighting Design, Set Design, Costume Design, Composition (Veda Hille and Amiel Gladstone}, and Direction (Amiel Gladstone).
When Evgeni Onegin visits the Larin family estate, his romantic charms stir passions long forgotten by its residents. Poet Vladimir Lensky’s romantic ideals are challenged after Onegin flirts with his fiancee, Olga Larin, and even the sensible Tatyana Larin falls for the handsome rogue. The hit musical moves, shakes, and wakes audiences with its sweeping score, leaving the powerful question swirling in their minds: Look around, look around, look around, do you see someone worth dying for?
On the musical’s remarkable success, Gladstone and Hille say, “After Craigslist Cantata-a play about disconnection-we wanted to immerse ourselves in something about connection, a story that could challenge our sometimes corseted Canadian sensibilities. We’ve been working on Onegin, making it better and wilder and more full of spirit(s). Here’s to love!”
The play stars Lauren Jackson (Tatyana Larin), Jonathan Winsby (Evgeni Onegin), Josh Epstein (Vladimir Lensky, select performances), Erik Fraser Gow (Vladimir Lensky, select performances), Meaghan Chenosky (Olga Larin and others), Caitriona Murphy (Madame Larin and others), Andrew Wheeler (Prince Gremin and others), and Nadeem Phillip (many others)
Tickets are $47 | $41 for Big Ticket Members | $37 for Big Ticket PLUS Members. Available at the Key City Theatre Box Office 250-426-7006 and Online at www.keycitytheatre.com
