Perchance still dreaming (and sword fighting and tempting and flying)

August 2025

Their summer 2025 season runs through the end of August, with productions of Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), by Ann-Marie MacDonald; Tempting Providence, by Robert Chafe; and The Flying Doctor (adapted by Evan Mercer from the Molière original) scheduled for matinee and 6pm stagings – plus presentations of Every Brilliant Thing and The Open Sky Series.
Perchance consistently hits theatrical high notes, even as it weathers site changes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the odd reluctance of banks to lend mortgages to theatre companies. Here’s an interview with Irvine, and you can get your Perchance tickets here.

Images from Goodnight Desdemona: Una Hill-McMullin and Aiden Flynn sword fighting while Diane Flacks (Constance) works on her thesis; Diane Flacks (Constance) and Zoe Cleland (Juliet); Una Hill-McMullin (Desdemona) smothers Diane Flacks (Constance); courtesy Perchance Theatre.

Non-Fiction Canada 150

The Blizzard Baby

BY Brad Vardy

“I think today’s going to be the day”, came the voice from the top of the stairs.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that it’s started, and we should be getting ready to head to the hospital soon.”

Followed by, “No panic, it’s just starting.”

Q & A

“Breaking all those barriers about what women could be seen to do was really important”: Michelle Clemens on artistic influences & outlets

After retiring as principal of O’Donel High School, Michelle Clemens wrote a play, Showdown, which won an Arts and Letters Award and was staged as a reading as part of…

From the Archives Canada 150

The Southside Hills in History and Song

BY Matthew Hollett

I’M NOT SURE who first referred to them as the “Dear Old” Southside Hills, or if anyone still calls them that. Possibly the name went out of fashion when the huge oil tanks were built. But the nickname seems to have stuck for a while in the early 1900s, a curious term of affection for the imposing hillside that gives shape to St. John’s Harbour.