University Players

See the stars of tomorrow today!

2017-18 SEASON

Welcome to our 59th season!

We invite you to book your ticket to a collection of outstanding theatrical experiences with University Players! These extraordinary productions showcase tomorrow's leading theatre artists, all for unbeatable prices.

Introducing University Players' Acting Company of 2017-2018

University Players' Acting Company of 2017-2018

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Audiences rave about University Players

"Absolutely amazing!"
Bruce Tucker

"We always love coming, and we’ll always come back"
Ann Price

"The best theatre in this city is happening at University Players."
Diana Mady Kelly

"Outstanding! I could have closed my eyes and thought I was listening to a professional performance in Toronto or New York"
Douglas Kneale

"The only difference between University Players and a professional theatre is about $100 a seat!"
Alan Kelch

"One of the finest and most searching stage adaptations of a great novel I have ever seen."

The London Telegraph

Jane Eyre

by Charlotte Brontë, adapted by Polly Teale

September 22 - October 1, 2017

Essex Hall Theatre

Psychological Drama

A theatrically innovative adaptation of the beloved gothic romance by Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre is orphaned, plain and poor, restricted to working as a governess in Thornfield Hall. But living in the attic of her imagination is a woman so passionate and fiery that Jane must keep her locked away. Polly Teale's adaptation beautifully captures the stormy relationships between Jane, the master of Thornfield, Mr. Rochester, and Jane's passionate inner self. Compelling, sensual and stark, it is a treat for Brontë fans and neophytes alike.

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AUDIENCE'S CHOICE

"...hilarious and touching... as comic sketch crazily succeeds comic sketch a whole pattern of American life emerges..."

NY Post

The Dining Room

by A.R. Gurney

October 27 - November 5, 2017

Essex Hall Theatre

Affectionate Comedy

A brilliantly conceived and richly humorous theatrical tour de force. From little boys to stern grandfathers, and from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids, a wide array of diverse characters and overlapping vignettes create a touching in-depth portrait of the vanishing lifestyle of the wealthy WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), and an ode to the once vital centre of family life, the dining room.

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"Theatre at its finest!.. Absurdly enjoyable! This gleefully theatrical riff on Hitchcock's film is fast and frothy, performed by a cast of four that seems like a cast of thousands."

The New York Times

The 39 Steps

Adapted by Patrick Barlow

November 24 - December 3, 2017

Essex Hall Theatre

Whodunit Comedy

Broadway's longest running comedy! A man bored with life meets a beautiful and mysterious spy. Soon, a secret organization called "The 39 Steps" is hot on the man's trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying finale! Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a Monty Python comedy and you have a fast-paced whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre! This 2-time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning treat is packed with nonstop laughs, over 150 zany characters (played by a ridiculously talented cast of 4), speeding trains, handcuffs, missing fingers and some good old-fashioned romance!

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STUDENT'S CHOICE
50th ANNIVERSARY!

"Almost 50 years later, the text still feels incendiary and its subject matter groundbreaking."

The Georgia Straight

Les Belles Soeurs

by Michel Tremblay

translated by John Van Burek and Bill Glassco

February 2 - 11, 2018

Essex Hall Theatre

Tragic-Comedy

Germaine Lauzon has won a million trading stamps and recruits her sisters, friends and neighbours to help her paste them into books so she can claim her prizes. As they stick, the women reveal deeply moving truths about their relationships to each other, the men in their lives, their children, their Church, and their society. Les Belles Soeurs has been called "the single most important event in the history of Quebec theatre" and is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its premiere. It broke ground for giving a voice to Quebec working class women and is still raucous, poignant and incredibly funny.

Warning: contains strong language.

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"One of the most important Canadian plays written in the last fifty years... It is a romance, a murder mystery and a coming-of-age story in one bloody package."

Geist.com

Love and Human Remains

by Brad Fraser

March 3 - March 12, 2017

Hatch Studio Theatre

Dark Comedy/Thriller

David, a gay waiter who has given up on his acting career, is watching his twenties tick away. Together with his book-reviewing roommate, Candy, and his best friend, Bernie, David encounters a number of seductive strangers in their search for love, sex and meaning. But the games turn ugly when it appears someone in their group might be a serial killer. Brad Fraser's raw thriller was immediately controversial when it premiered in the 1990s, and acclaimed by critics and audiences around the world, winning him numerous awards.

For mature audiences – Graphic language, sexuality, nudity and mature subject matter.

Named one of the ten best plays of the year by Time Magazine.
Film adaptation directed by Oscar-winning director Denys Arcand.

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"His [Mr. Mee's] leap of boundless imagination has refashioned tragedy into a theatrical statement that is comedic, gymnastic, musical, sensual, shocking and redemptive."

The New York Times

Big Love

by CHarles L. Mee

March 23 - 25, April 4 - 8, 2018

Essex Hall Theatre

Colossal Tragic-Comedy

Fifty reluctant brides run away from 50 determined grooms, asking for refuge in a villa on the coast of Italy. When the grooms catch up with the brides, mayhem ensues. This modern adaptation of one of the western world's oldest plays, The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus, is as bloody as a Greek tragedy and as entertaining as a modern Broadway musical. Big Love is a story of love, murder, passion, food fights, power struggles, refugees, gender politics and violence. But in the end it is decreed: "Love trumps all."

Mature content and adult language

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