Mirvish back in business come August
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Curtain up!
Mirvish Productions is counting on Toronto’s re-opening.
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Mirvish back in business come August Back to video
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The city’s theatre giant has announced the first indoor theatrical production since venues went dark 14 months ago with COVID-19.
The Princess of Wales Theatre on King will welcome patrons back starting August 4 as Mirvish presents the Donmar Warehouse production of Blindness, an immersive sound installation.
Blindness places an audience directly into the centre of a world pandemic, an experience relayed entirely through sound and light and narrated by the voice of renowned British actress Juliet Stevenson (Truly, Madly, Deeply).
There are no actors in the room.
As the name suggests, Blindness involves a pandemic of immediate sight loss that overtakes much of the population; the play is an often frightening journey into the heart of that darkness.
Rave reviews have described the production as electrifying. This is an adaptation of Jose Saramago’s novel, adapted by playwright Simon Stephens and directed by Walter Meierjohann. Sound design is from Ben and Max Ringham.
Blindness was scheduled to open last November but was delayed by ongoing COVID issues.
Theatre impresario David Mirvish said he is confident this opening will be a go.
“With almost 70% of Ontario’s adult population having had the first dose, and with the government having announced its three-step reopening plan, we are more confident than before that we will finally be able to put Blindness on the stage of the Princess of Wales Theatre in August.”
By that point Toronto will be in the third stage of the reopening.
Strict safety protocols will be enforced for the opening, with masks required for all staff and patrons, among many other precautions.
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Mirvish praised the Donmar Warehouse in London for this production; in May, the Donmar launched a UK national tour of the production at the Oxford Playhouse. Blindness has been presented in several cities, including New York, Mexico City, Hong Kong and Washington, D.C.
The production is 75 minutes long with no intermission, and a maximum of 50 people will be in the audience for each performance.
This reopening in Toronto is a hopeful sign for the city.
In New York, Broadway theatres can reopen at full capacity starting in September, and dozens of Broadway shows are getting ready to return to the Great White Way.
Tickets for Blindness will be available starting June 23.
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