The Wildside Festival introduces Montrealers to emerging and edgy theatre companies, actors and directors at Centaur Theatre. Programmed with an eye towards the wildly unconventional, the 17th edition of the Wildside Theatre Festival serves up a smorgasbord of avant-garde works by exceptionally talented theatre artists.

The roster includes Iceland, winner of the 2013 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama (part of the Fault Lines trilogy by Nicolas Billon), and Little Orange Man, which won the Best English-language production at the 2013 Montreal Fringe Festival.
 
The 17th Annual Wildside Theatre Festival runs from January 3 -12, 2014. The best way to enjoy the Festival is with a pass, and they are so popular that they sell out quickly. 

Little Orange Man The audience arrives to find that they have all signed up via craigslist to be guinea pigs in a Danish girl’s dream experiment. What emerges through the fast-paced physical humour is the honest efforts of an outcast child who entrusts a group of strangers to help fight her darkest battle.

Outstanding Overall Production – Ottawa Fringe 2012; Pick‐of‐the‐Fringe – Vancouver Fringe 2011, Vancouver Playhouse Award 2011.

A Quiet Sip Of Coffee or, This Is Not The Play We’ve Written This is a Canadian premiere. In 2004, Anthony Johnston and Nathan Schwartz wrote a prank letter to a fundamentalist “ex-gay” group asking for funds to produce their play Never Cry Wolfman. To their surprise, the letter was answered and they were invited to workshop the show at the organization’s retreat in rural British Columbia – under the condition they also spend two weeks participating in gay conversion therapy. Years later, the friends reunite to tell their story as a piece of theatre.

V-Cards A collection of honest, preachy-free confessions about virginity and sexuality. Four actors use the power of mask to transform into 20+ characters (aged 15 -70) whose stories take us from British Columbia to Newfoundland, gay to straight to bisexual to transsexual, innocent to cruel, underwhelming to glorious, heartbreakingly raw to side-splittingly funny. Mature themes.

Iceland Money. Mortgages. Murder. Set against the backdrop of the banking crisis, a confrontation between a real estate agent and a tenant takes an unexpected turn. Winner of the 2013 Governor General’s Award for Drama (as part of Fault Lines by Nicolas Billon), NOW Magazine Audience Choice Award and the Best New Play Award at the 2012 SummerWorks Festival.  Mature language. 

Talk, Mackerel You are cordially invited to the birthday party of Leslie Moira Duncanaine. But something is off. Welcome to a world of lethal lipstick and midnight moonshine where portraits of ancestors bicker when they aren’t singing or playing cards. Nominated for 4 Montreal Fringe awards including Best Production Design and Best English Theatre Production.

Big Shot A shooting occurs on the Vancouver SkyTrain and a 12-year-old witness is here to recount it to you. Big Shot breaks down six different perspectives on the split second of time between a bullet leaving a gun and hitting its target. A thrilling ride through the Hollywood landscape of glorified violence and slow-motion death sequences. Told through dance, text and physical theatre. WARNING: Strong language.

Blue Box Starring award-winning actor and playwright Carmen Aguirre. Blue Box investigates Carmen Aguirre’s remarkable life as an underground revolutionary in Chile. It’s a story of terror, romance and abandon that takes us from the dangerous mountain passes of Chile to the perilous roller coasters of Hollywood; from an ardent love affair with a TV star, to a passionate love for a revolution that strove to change an entire nation. Blue Box contains mature content and strong language.  

For tickets and more information:
www.centaurtheatre.com Box Office: 514-288-3161