Toronto's Coal Mine Announces Its 2 Show Winter 2022 Slate

The challenging, stimulating, and exhilarating work I’ve seen on the stage of The Coal Mine Theatre has always left me thinking and pondering over the subject material of the play the next day.

Good stuff going on there, and I am really pleased to share Coal Mine is returning in Winter 2022. Here are the details from a recent press I release I received:

                                                        January 23 – March 6, 2022

Canadian premiere of THE ANTIPODES by Annie Baker

Directed by Ted Dykstra

With Simon Bracken, Joshua Browne, Ari Cohen, Sarah Dodd, Colin Doyle, Murray Furrow, Qasim Khan, Varun Sarango and Kelsey Verzotti

The Story: ‘The Antipodes’ involves a group of people sitting around a table telling, cataloging, and theorizing stories. Their purpose is never clear: are they brainstorming ideas for a TV show? A film? A mythology? This is a world where ghostly fables co-exist with mundane discussions of snacks and sexual exploits, where the vague instruction to tell stories about “something monstrous” though “it might not be a literal monster” becomes maddeningly impossible. Part satire, part sacred rite, ‘The Antipodes’ asks what value stories have for a world in crisis.

April 10-May 22, 2022

Toronto premiere of DETROIT by Lisa D’Amour

Directed by Jill Harper

The cast will be announced at a later date.

The Story: In a first-ring suburb just outside a city that might be Detroit, Ben and Mary see sudden signs of life at the deserted house next door and invite their new neighbours Sharon and Kenny over for a barbecue. As the action unfolds, we learn that Sharon and Kenny met at rehab, neither is employed, and they don’t own a stick of furniture. The quintessential American backyard party turns quickly into something more dangerous-and filled with potential.

Founded in 2014 by Diana Bentley and Ted Dykstra, co-artistic directors, The Coal Mine was modeled after the Off-Off Broadway New York theatres and branded as Toronto’s Off-Off Broadview Theatre. In its intimate space at 1454 Danforth Avenue, The Coal Mine has for six season presented some of the most challenging, stimulating and award-winning scripts from Canada and around the world.

To learn more about The Coal Mine and its Covid protocols for both shows, visit www.coalminetheatre.com.