The festival line up includes new works based on classical mythology and themes, timeless poetic imagery and a breath of new life for a classic Greek text.

In true Gravy Bath tradition (low-to-no budget) companies have been invited to work solely for the importance of theatre – the role it plays in our society and the responsibility of the artists within the community. The idea is to explore the art, to exercise the imagination and to rise above the struggle for funding and invest in the one resource we all truly possess; our creativity. This idea is a ‘movement’ that has always existed – usually one that a company falls into. But when a group of artists accepts and embraces this challenge they really begin to explore and create, with an incomparable passion, what’s rich in what’s poor. These are the people who have been invited to participate in the New Classical Theatre Festival; a place to experiment with the old, re-interpret the classics and create new challenging works.

The 2005 edition of the NCTF will be presented at three centrally located venues (listed below) and showcasing the talents of over 70 actors, designers, directors and technicians from the Montreal area and beyond.

Gravy Bath Productions is an independent young theatre company dedicated to the creation of original works, the re-interpretation of important classical texts, and the exploration of new theatrical styles. Now housed at the ‘B’egal Theatre (the Segal’s second stage), Gravy Bath Productions is constantly evolving and exploring, searching for new ways to tap into the Theatre of the Imagination. Past productions include: The Rape of Lucrece, Kali Yuga, De Profundis, Coriolanus, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Ugly, Henry. Octobre. 1970., Top Gun Circus, UnfoundedFearOf, Tempest: Forecast Disorder, Critic and Christofer’s Story.

Venue One ---------------------------------The Corner Store
Studio Hydro-Québec, Monument-National 1182 St-Laurent Blvd (metro St-Laurent)

Gravy Bath Productions in association with the Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre in collaboration with the Montreal Young Company, and produced with the generous support of the Conseil des arts de Montréal

Anthony Kokx’s
This Table
August 16th – 27th 2005
Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays 8:00 pm / Sunday 2:00 pm
Running time 2hrs 15min including intermission

A new work by playwright and director Anthony Kokx, created with 16 actors and 4 designers, This Table explores the evolution of a man’s life over a hundred years as the table, on which he was born, is passed down from child to child. This Table is a continuous ride through time, sound, style and ideas. As the work was created; improvisations in dance, mime, movement, opera and text were exercised to develop a brand new language of theatre, a new style of creation.

Anthony Kokx was a Montreal Mirror Noisemaker in 2002 and has been nominated 3 times for ‘Best New Text or Adaptation’ by the Montreal English Critics Circle Awards.

Written and directed by Anthony Kokx; designed by Paul Chambers, Megan Mitchell-Downey, Lyne Paquette and Lisa Vording; created by and featuring Erin Agostino, Don Anderson, Yann Bernaquez, Brad Carmichael, Jessica Carmichael, Sascha Cole, Graham Cuthbertson, Tim Diamond, Angela Galuppo, Stephanie Greer, Ian Lake, Chris Masson, Chris Moore, Christina Opolko, Rick Orlando and Aaron Turner.
Admissions: 514-871-2224
Tickets $18 Students/Seniors $15

Playing in repertory with

Sophocles’
Oedipus Rex
Wednesdays, Fridays, Sundays 8:00 pm / Saturdays 2:00 pm
Running time 2hrs including intermission

When a classical piece of theatre breathes in a reading, you know it already has a life of its own. With one of the oldest scripts around this company set out to explore what was at the depth of this story, to run around inside the mind of Oedipus Rex, to breathe life back into its bones. “I think we’ve created a brand new play, a brand new way of storytelling!”- Anthony Kokx (director).

Gravy Bath Productions is the winner of 7 Montreal English Critics Circle Awards, and has been among the Gazette’s Top Ten Theatre Picks for the last three years.

Directed by Anthony Kokx; designed by Paul Chambers, Danielle Jakubiak, Megan Mitchell-Downey and Lyne Paquette; featuring Erin Agostino, Don Anderson, Yann Bernaquez, Brad Carmichael, Jessica Carmichael, Sascha Cole, Graham Cuthbertson, Tim Diamond, Angela Galuppo, Stephanie Greer, Ian Lake, Chris Masson, Chris Moore, Christina Opolko, Rick Orlando and Aaron Turner.
Admissions: 514-871-2224
Tickets $18 Students/Seniors $15

Venue Two-----------------------------------The Local Spot
Théâtre Ste-Catherine 264 Ste-Catherine Street East

Christopher Fry’s
A Phoenix Too Frequent
Aug 23rd – Sept 3rd, 2005
Tuesday to Saturday 8:00 p.m. / Sunday 12:30 p.m.

A Phoenix Too Frequent was written after World War II, in a period when poetic drama was being revived conscientiously by playwrights like Christopher Fry and T.S. Elliot. It is an expression of the triumph of joy over sorrow, life over death, love everlasting – and of the playwright’s warmth, humour, and hope.

Directed by Moira Wylie; featuring Helen King, Lina Roessler and Jesse Todd.
(This project is an Equity-approved Co-op)
Gravy Bath Ticket Info: 514-540-0774
Tickets $12 Students/Seniors $10

Edgar Allen Poe’s
The Raven
Aug 23rd – Sept 3rd, 2005
10:00 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday / 2:30 p.m. Sunday matinee

The Raven is a theatrical adaptation of E.A. Poe’s masterwork. This production explores the poem’s existing counterpoint between narration and monologue to tell the story of the pallid Pallas, the lost Lenore, the tenacious Raven, and the nameless protagonist. Conceived for a single performer and minimal set, this piece employs a rich soundscape and evocative music to immerse us in the eerie, lonely world of Poe’s tormented anti-hero.

Created and performed by Kevin Tighe (Sound Designer and Performer).
Gravy Bath Ticket Info: 514-540-0774
Tickets $8 Students/Seniors $5

Mark Twain’s
Is Shakespeare Dead?
Sept 6th – Sept 10th, 2005
Tuesday to Saturday 8:00 p.m.

Keir Cutler, as Mark Twain, examines the lack of historical evidence from Elizabethan England to support Shakespeare’s authorship of the famous works. The piece argues that it was highly improbable for a largely uneducated boy from Stratford to have become the author of perhaps the most sophisticated literary works ever written.

Keir has been called “a masterful entertainer.” (Winnipeg Free Press) and “a marvel to watch.” (Toronto Sun)

Created and Performed by Keir Cutler
Gravy Bath Ticket Info: 514-540-0774
Tickets $10

Always Lost Never Found
Sept 6th – Sept 10th, 2005
Tuesday to Saturday 9:30 p.m.

A new play by writer and performer Mike Hughes plunges in and out of conscious and sub-conscious states, real life and dream life, daydreams and nightmares, and finds himself caught in the world between, stuck, searching for the girl of dreams.

Mike Hughes was nominated for Montreal English Critics Circle Award for ‘Revelation’ in 2003.

Written & directed by Mike Hughes.
Gravy Bath Ticket Info: 514-540-0774
Tickets $8 Students/Seniors $5

Venue Three---------------------------------The International Hotel
Théâtre Calixa-Lavallée Parc Lafontaine

SaBooge Theatre’s (United States/Canada/United Kingdom)
Speak Easy
Sept 1st – Sept 10th, 2005
Tuesday to Saturday 7:30 p.m. / Sunday 12:30 p.m.

SaBooge Theatre premieres its latest creation SPEAK EASY, uniting a “neo-gothic taste for the macabre” (Variety, NYC) with its largest ensemble to date, to create a richly aesthetic, darkly imagined Jazz Age tragedy in all its farcical detail.

SaBooge Theatre is the winner of the 2004 Montreal English Critics Circle Award for ‘Best New Text’ and ‘Best Show’ at the ESB Dublin Fringe Festival.

Created by Darcy Bruce, Atilla Clemen, Alison Darcy, Jodi Essery, Kayla Fell, Adrienne Kapstein, Angela Galuppo, Simon Harding, Jeff Lorenz, Trent Pardy and Andrew Shaver.
Gravy Bath Ticket Info: 514-540-0774
Tickets $10 Students/Seniors $8

Théâtre Déséquilibrium’s (United States/Italy/France/Australia)
The Circus of the Elephants / Le Cirque des Éléphants
Sept 1st – Sept 10th, 2005
Tuesday to Saturday 9:30 p.m. / Sunday 2:30 p.m.

In a desert wilderness, with the sounds of a war echoing in the distance, a little circus and its two remaining clowns struggle to survive. Inspired by the worlds of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Wind, Sand, and Stars and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, “The Circus of the Elephants” is an absurd tragi-comedy exploring solitude, love, fear, and the effort of two human beings to remain side by side.

Conceived and devised by Fiora Blasi, Servane Ducorps, Steph Kehoe and Jennifer Sargent.

Gravy Bath Ticket Info: 514-540-0774
Tickets $10 Students/Seniors $8