Opening this week

• Shadow Theatre’s production of Erin Shields’ Soliciting Temptation runs March 8 – 26.

In a sweaty and sticky hotel room, a Western man and a young woman meet for sex. Somewhere between the reality and the fantasy, the sex becomes talk and the talk becomes dangerous. Nothing is off limits in this battle of morality, economics, and desire.

• Lianna Makuch’s Blood of Our Soil runs for three nights only, March 9 – 11 at the ATB Financial Arts Barns.

Blood of Our Soil is a multi-disciplinary performance experience, integrating live Ukrainian folk music, a fusion of Ukrainian and contemporary dance, and an innovative projection design painting a landscape of beauty and terror. A personal and provocative new work inspired by a true account of a WWII Ukrainian immigrant, Blood of Our Soil is both a celebration of the rich Ukrainian culture and a demand for recognition of the looming threat of war currently brewing in Eastern Ukraine.

• The Madfandango Theatre Collective is presenting The Believers by Byrony Lavery at The Roxy on Gateway March 9 – 19.

In the midst of a terrible storm a couple offers refuge to the family next door. As exhaustion and irritation give way to the relaxing flow of alcohol, secrets and beliefs are revealed, and then challenged, when something unthinkable happens. Something unbelievable. As each person’s version of the event begins to fall apart and become clouded by suspicion, they turn on each other in a battle to understand the truth.

• Concordia University’s Urinetown: The Musical runs various dates March 10 – 19.

In a dystopian near future, decades of drought have created water shortages so severe that private toilets have been outlawed. An evil (and very wealthy) corporation runs all the public amenities in The City, corrupt policemen enforce harsh laws and the people live without hope. Until an assistant custodian named Bobby Strong finds the courage to lead the people against tyranny…

• SkirtsAfire herArts Festival runs March 9 – 12 on 118 avenue and is a multidisciplinary celebration of female artists.

For more about SkirtsAfire herArts Festival and their mainstage production, The Mommy Monologues, check out my interview with Festival Director, Annette Loiselle.

• Crazy for You: The New Gershwin Musical officially opens at the Citadel Theatre this week and runs until March 26.

Suggested by the 1930 hit Girl Crazy, this “new” Gershwin musical is about a well-to-do young New Yorker, Bobby Child, who is sent to Nevada to foreclose on a theatre owned by the family business. Falling in love with the local postmistress, Bobby decides to produce a show to save the theatre.

Closing this week

• The world première of The Mommy Monologues, presented by SkirtsAfire herArts Festival, run until March 12. Similar to The Vagina Monologues, The Mommy Monologues is a series of monologues written by female Edmonton playwrights:
  • Beth Graham
  • Andrea House
  • Katherine Koller
  • Annette Loiselle
  • Conni Massing
  • Nicole Moeller
  • Mieko Ouchi
  • Dana Rayment
  • Glenda Stirling
  • Michele Vance Hehir
  • Cat Walsh
• Aaron Posner’s Stupid F#@king Bird runs at The Backstage Theatre until March 12.

Fundraisers

• Theatre Network has released information about their Spring Fling! Gala Fundraiser on March 23.
• Punctuate! Theatre’s Dino Ball is March 24 at Latitude 53.