The Devil’s Disciple , Play, Orchestra, Play and Albertine in Five Times Open at Shaw Festival

Three plays are slated to open next week as part of the 2009 Season that includes a rare performance of Coward’s Tonight at 8:30

2 July 2009 -- Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario -- Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple; Noël Coward's Play, Orchestra, Play; and a new translation by Linda Gaboriau of Michel Tremblay's Albertine in Five Times are slated to open next week at The Shaw Festival as part of the 2009 Season that includes a rare performance of Coward's Tonight at 8:30.

The Red Coats have returned to Niagara-on-the-Lake in a new production of George Bernard Shaw's rollicking adventure The Devil's Disciple. It's the height of the American Revolution and Dick Dudgeon (Evan Buliung) — the black sheep son -- is known as the Devil's Disciple. When he is mistaken for a crusading minister (Peter Krantz) and imprisoned by English forces, the minister's wife (Fiona Byrne) begins to question who is really saint and who is really sinner? Known for his flair for revitalizing theatre classics, director Tadeusz Bradecki presents an inventive interpretation of Shaw's most successful play. The Devil's Disciple opens on Thursday, July 9th andis sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

A new translation of Michel Tremblay's Albertine in Five Times (Albertine en Cinq Temps) opens Friday, July 10th at the Shaw Festival's Court House Theatre. Directed by Micheline Chevrier, this new translation of Albertine in Five Times by Governor General's Award winner Linda Gaboriau has Québécois theatre's most iconic character interacting with five versions of herself in varying stages of her life. The five Albertines review a lifetime of past pains, loves and losses. Their sister Madeleine is there to console, counsel and bear witness to how, for seventy years, Albertine's spirit has suffered, struggled, flourished and survived.

Play, Orchestra, Play, the second trio in the Shaw Festival's presentation of Noël Coward's Tonight at 8:30, opens Saturday, July 11th. Directed by Christopher Newton, this melody-infused triple bill continues the Shaw Festival's world premiere of Tonight at 8:30, the Coward cycle of ten one-act plays. Play, Orchestra, Play features Fumed Oak, Coward's "unpleasant comedy in two scenes", sandwiched between mini-musicals Red Peppers and Shadow Play. From the backstage lives of a singing and dancing comedy act to a rare Coward stage depiction of suburban life to a musical fantasy about a couple falling in and out of love; this Coward compilation combines lyrics, laughter and longing. Taken from the Noël Coward song "You Were There", the title Play, Orchestra, Play highlights the significant role music plays in this Coward cluster and features some of his most celebrated songs. As one character declares, "it would be so much easier, wouldn't it, if we had music when things go wrong?"

For more information or to purchase tickets to the 2009 Season performances, call locally 905-468-2172 or toll free 1-800-511-SHAW (7429) or visit www.shawfest.com.

About the Shaw Festival

Inspired by the brilliance, bravery, humanity and humour of George Bernard Shaw, the Shaw Festival is a crucible of progressive and provocative ideas, which illuminate our understanding of today's world. The Shaw's playbill, centred on the era of Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), covers a diversity of views that shine light on different worlds during a period of extraordinary shift.