The University of Winnipeg Department of Theatre and Film opens its season with the first Canadian production of playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner’s aggressively timely A Bright Room Called Day Revisited – a production that asks: “When the Devil takes up residence in your country…will you act?”
In 2019, Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright (Angels in America; Caroline, or Change) and Screenwriter (Munich; Lincoln; West Side Story) Tony Kushner “revisited” the earliest of his plays ever produced, to include the impact of President Trump’s first term on the original storyline, adding a new character, and rewriting the end.
About the production
In 1932 Weimar Germany, actress Agnes and her cadre of passionate, progressive friends are torn between protest, escape, and survival as the world they knew crumbles around them. Agnes’s story is interrupted by an American woman enraged by the cruelty of the Reagan administration, and another character grappling with the anxiety, distraction, hope, and hopelessness of an artist facing the once unthinkable rise of authoritarianism in modern America. Funny, brilliant, and devastating, this radical reimagining of A Bright Room Called Day revisits an epic work that takes a piercing look at the vulnerability of American democracy.
“I have spent my entire life, like most of us, looking at the beginning, middle, and continuation of a horrendous misdirection in the political fortunes of our democracy,” said Kushner. “And it has led directly to where we are right now. The Reagan counterrevolution’s mantra was that government is the problem. And hatred of government leads to hatred of democracy, and if it goes on long enough and isn’t checked by people who believe in democracy and believe in government, it’s going to lead to an attempt to replace it with something else—whether you can call it fascism in the mid-20th-century sense or some other antidemocratic, oligarchic kleptocracy.”
The University of Winnipeg’s powerful production of this early play by one of America’s greatest living playwrights embraces the political, structural, and narrative challenges of this urgent and disturbing work.
This production features performances by the fourth-year Honours Acting class, and all technical work is done by both junior and senior production students, supervised by UWinnipeg staff and faculty. Lighting and set design by faculty member Adam Parboosingh and costume design by faculty member Brenda McLean. Directed by faculty member Christopher Brauer.
Showtimes and tickets
A Bright Room Called Day Revisited runs Tuesday, December 2 through Friday, December 5 at 7:30 p.m. each evening, and Saturday December 6 at 4:00 p.m. Performances will take place at the Asper Centre for Theatre and Film (400 Colony – entrance off Balmoral Street). Admission is free, but reservations are recommended. Please visit UWinnipeg’s Department of Theatre and Film website at http://theatre.uwinnipeg.ca or call the 24-hour Reservation Line at 204.786.9152.
Based in the Asper Centre for Theatre and Film at The University of Winnipeg, the Department of Theatre and Film offers concentrations in acting, design, drama in education, filmmaking, playwriting, and production/stage management. Our classes are small and our approach is practical. Our faculty is comprised of highly respected and award-winning professionals who are experienced teachers and remain active in their disciplines, bringing relevant and up-to-date instruction to our students.
