Teatro La Quindicina has one of the most loyal followings in the capital region. Fans that have breathlessly waited for the new season to launch will be delighted to know it starts tomorrow with The Salon of the Talking Turk.
Playwright Stewart Lemoine’s Talking Turk is loosely inspired by elements found in the stories of E.T.A. Hoffmann, a 19th century Prussian Romantic author of fantasy and horror.
We are most familiar with his novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King later adapted by Pyotr Tchaikovsky as the book for The Nutcracker.
In Talking Turk, a fortune-telling mechanical marvel arrives among the 1920 Manhattan smart set and sets tongues wagging.
Louise Lambert stars as a socialite searching for scientific enlightenment. Shannon Blanchet is a freethinking flapper and Braydon Dowler-Coltman is the socialite’s enterprising millionaire brother while Mark Meer is the mysterious Talking Turk.
The play runs May 25 to June 10 at the Varscona Theatre. Tickets are $23 to $37 online at www.teatrq.com.
As part of the year-end performances, Citadel Theatre’s Young Musical Company presents Sideshow, a musical based on the lives of Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins who became famous stage performers in the 1930s.
As the musical opens, the sisters are part of a freak sideshow that includes a tough ringmaster, a bearded lady, the Cannibal King, a sheik’s seraglio and the star attraction – the Siamese twins.
The musical explores the twins’ desire to step into vaudeville, their interest in men, their successes and heartbreaks.
Three St. Albert actors are performing in Sideshow. They are Anikka Hanson as Venus de Milo, Auriana McPhail as the fortune teller and David Yue as Tod Browning.
Sideshow is on May 25 and 26 at 7:30 p.m. and May 27 at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $24. Call 780-425-1820.
