ANNOUNCING THE SHAKESPEARE’S COMPANY

2024/2025 SEASON 

First Season Program from Artistic Producer Richard Beaune, Centred Around Theme of Arrivals 

Calgary, AB – The Shakespeare Company is thrilled to announce their 2024/2025 Season, the first program set by new Artistic Producer Richard Beaune. The full season is centred around the theme of Arrivals and kicks off this Fall with The Comedy of Errors, in repertoire with Twelfth Night.

“As I contemplated my first season for The Shakespeare Company, I thought about my own arrival in Calgary, and the generosity that I’ve felt from the theatre community here. I want to honour that by making ‘Arrivals’ the theme for the season. This is the beginning of a new chapter, and I celebrate that with three wonderfully joyous plays, each of which is sparked by a remarkable arrival,” said Richard Beaune, The Shakespeare Company’s Artistic Producer, who joined the company in January 2024.

“Repertory theatre hasn’t been seen much in Calgary, and I’m very excited about bringing the concept here to add a heightened layer of excitement to the productions. Running the first two plays in rep shows off the skills of the team, and with the plays alternating daily, the audience will get to see an amazing range across two productions,” added Beaune.

Returning to the company’s original mandate of producing Shakespeare and other classics, the last show of the season will be the remount of the Prime Stock Theatre production of The Games of Love and Chance by Pierre de Marivaux. This new translation of the French comedy was extremely well received by audiences in Red Deer and Beaune is excited to bring the play to Calgary audiences.

“This is another play where people are in disguise, and those who arrive may not be what they seem. In our production, the cast has a strong representation of nontraditional gender identities and this influenced our exploration of the theme of identity within the play, providing us with a decidedly contemporary lens through which we explore the play and which opens up a delightful new layer of confusion within the comedy,” said Beaune.

THE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY 2024/2025 SEASON PRODUCTIONS

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

September 27 – October 18, 2024

Directed by Bronwyn Steinberg

The Comedy of Errors is a wacky farce involving two sets of identical twins, separated as children in a shipwreck, who happen to end up in the same city. Mistaken identities lead to all sorts of mishaps and confusion.

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

September 28 – October 19, 2024

Directed by Richard Beaune

Twelfth Night is a sophisticated comedy of extravagant behaviour and ridiculous selfindulgence. When two siblings are separated in a shipwreck (sound familiar?), disguises and mistaken identities lead to unexpected romantic adventures and clownish pranks.

The Games of Love and Chance by William Shakespeare

May 2 – 17, 2025

Translated and Directed by Richard Beaune

The Games of Love and Chance is a delightful and elegant comedy of disguise and romance, in a surprisingly accessible and modern-feeling new translation of this classic French masterpiece.

All three shows will be performed in the Vertigo Studio Theatre and tickets will be on sale soon. For more information, please visit https://shakespearecompany.com/

The Shakespeare Company has brought the Bard alive for Calgarians through both Shakespeare and Shakespeare inspired plays since 1995. They are committed to making Shakespeare accessible through innovative performances and inspired directing. https://shakespearecompany.com

Richard Beaune, Artistic Producer: Richard has been creating theatre across Canada for nearly 40 years as an actor, director and collaborator. He trained at Toronto Metropolitan University, George Brown College, the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium (Ohio) and received his MFA in Theatre from York University. He was the Artistic Director of Toronto’s Simple Truth Theatre, the award-winning Keystone Theatre (Toronto) and Red Deer’s Prime Stock Theatre. He has performed in every province and territory in both English and French and his shows have garnered rave reviews and multiple awards including a Dora Mavor Moore Award and a Canadian Comedy Award. He has worked in a wide variety of styles and in venues ranging from Canada’s largest festivals (Stratford and Shaw) to parks and unexpected found spaces. He loves to defy expectations, but ultimately his goal in life is to make you smile.