From the event website:
This production is presented by Poculi Ludique Societas and Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto in conjunction with the conference “Strangers and Aliens in London and Toronto: Sex, Religion, and Xenophobia in Marston’s The Dutch Courtesan.”
The urban landscape of the play presents London as a city that simultaneously applauds itself for being a multicultural cosmopolitan metropolis and feels deeply anxious about the place of strangers within its urban landscape. The main plot deals with the treatment of a foreign sex worker whose otherness is partly established through her accent; the sub-plot follows two members of a distrusted religious minority as they are tricked and abused.
Marston’s play is a reflection of the London his audience inhabited, a cynical, often vicious portrayal of a here-and-now. Our production aims to evoke that audience-actor dynamic, and so we are looking to approximate some original conditions, but with a largely modern aesthetic. The aim is to use performance choices, costumes, accents, and casting that link Marston’s London to our Toronto today.
Tickets are available here.
March 21 – 8:00PM
March 22 – 8:00PM
March 23 – 8:00PM
March 24 – 2:00PM
We gratefully acknowledge support from SSHRC, the University of Toronto, the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, Poculi Ludique Societas, McMaster University, and Edward’s Boys.
