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Image containing a black & white photo on an illustrated blue background of a woman with long blonde hair, standing sideways and looking over her shoulder at us. A pointed yellow horizontal zigzag line crisscrosses around her, becoming red at the top.
Image containing a black & white photo on an illustrated blue background of a woman with long blonde hair, standing sideways and looking over her shoulder at us. A pointed yellow horizontal zigzag line crisscrosses around her, becoming red at the top.
Photo: Maev Beaty. Artwork by Jacob Whibley.

Amidst great catastrophe Amidst great catastrophe

friendship, love & wonder prevail.

Photo: Maev Beaty. Artwork by Jacob Whibley.

Home Events Performance The Great Fire: An Immersive Audio Drama Experience

The Great Fire: An Immersive Audio Drama Experience

Love is stronger than fire
A remarkable piece of immersive audio storytelling

From Thursday, July 25 to Saturday, September 14, 2024, Necessary Angel Theatre Company presents The Great Fire as part of the Stratford Festival’s Forum Performances in the Tom Patterson Theatre’s Lazaridis Hall. With only six performances each in July, August and September, and seating limited to a dozen for each listening party, we encourage you to book your tickets early to enjoy this experience.

The Great Fire evokes a world both everyday and otherworldly. Within a familiar folk setting of competing rural villages, playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig conjures a magical yet modern world beset by prejudice, misunderstanding, plague and climate catastrophe. And as we so often find in times of trauma, there remains friendship, and wonder, and even love.

“Roland Schimmelpfennig is a narrative master, The Great Fire is an inescapably gripping tale. It is at once harrowing, prophetic and achingly beautiful. It is a story that asks: where are we now? And how did we get here?”

– Alan Dilworth, Necessary Angel Artistic Director & production director

Translated by David Tushingham, and conceived and directed by Alan Dilworth, The Great Fire features narration by Dora Award-winner Maev Beaty, and original sound design and mix by Dora Award-winner Debashis Sinha. Audiences will experience this five-part audio drama in an intimate and immersive environment with a limited seating of 12 for each performance.

An image featuring a photo with text. A greyed out photo of a room with 8 red upholstered chairs set in a circle around a small table with a record player on it, with individual headphones attached to the record player on the area rug beneath the table. There is a row of tall rectangular stained glass windows in the background, with Romanesque columns to the left and right of the room, and a floor lamp between the two central chairs. The words: The GREAT Fire in white font in the centre of the image.

(Photo credits: Stratford Festival / Necessary Angel Theatre Company.)

About Necessary Angel Theatre Company

Necessary Angel Theatre Company is one of English Canada’s most vital original creation and touring organizations. The company has a history of innovation and risk taking and engages theatre artists from a variety of disciplines in the creation of new work. An influential and original presence on the national and international theatre scene for over 40 years, the company has produced more than 60 productions, including 30 world premieres and 11 North American premieres. Work created by Necessary Angel has been nominated for and has won Governor General’s Awards for Drama, Chalmers Awards for Outstanding New Play, and numerous Dora Mavor Moore Awards.

Image containing a black & white photo on an illustrated blue background of a woman with long blonde hair, standing sideways and looking over her shoulder at us. A pointed yellow horizontal zigzag line crisscrosses around her, becoming red at the top.

(Photo credits: Maev Beaty. Artwork by Jacob Whibley.)

 

Event details

Hosted by: A Stratford Festival presentation of a Necessary Angel Theatre Company production

Type of event: immersive audio drama experience

Written by: Roland Schimmelpfennig, translated by David Tushingham

Conceived & directed by: Alan Dilworth

Narrator: Maev Beaty

Sound design & mix: Debashis Sinha

Dates & times: Please note – latecomers will not be admitted.

  • Thursday, July 25 – Saturday, July 27 @ 2:00 PM & 4:30 PM ET
  • Thursday, August 15 – Saturday, August 17 @ 2:00 PM & 4:30 PM ET
  • Thursday, September 12 – Saturday, September 14 @ 2:00 PM & 4:30 PM ET

Duration: Approximately 75 minutes (no intermission)

Cost: C$59.00

Location: Tom Patterson Theatre, Lazaridis Hall, 111 Lakeside Drive, Stratford, ON, N5A 7S3

Listen: Hear the Stageworthy podcast interview with Maev Beaty and Debashis Sinha about the process behind The Great Fire. Interview transcript pending.

Booking link: Book your tickets here

Contact Details: Stratford Festival Box Office, 55 Queen Street, Stratford, ON N5A 4M9, Canada; Toll-free: 1-800-567-1600, Local (in Stratford): 519-273-1600; stratfordfestival.ca/AboutUs/ContactUs, stratfordfestival.ca

 

Content warning: Recommended for audiences 16+.

Accessibility: Info and here.

Refund policy: Some discounted tickets are final-sale and can’t be exchanged. However, regular-priced tickets may be exchanged for tickets to another performance within the same season, providing you return them to them at least 24 hours before the performance for which they were bought. Because their prices change during the season, you may have to pay more for your new tickets. You can’t exchange regular-priced tickets for any discounted tickets, including rush seating. Exchange fees of $8.10 per ticket applies. Tickets for the Stratford Direct bus can be exchanged for another date with at least 24 hours’ notice prior to the departure time. The Stratford Festival doesn’t offer refunds; however, if you return tickets at least one hour before the performance begins, they can give you a tax receipt for their cash value. The same exchange fees apply as above.