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What is a classic? Why do some plays grace stages to this day, while others sleep beneath the thick blanket of Time? This piece is a joyous exchange of ideas, both eloquent and irreverent—brazen, some would say—about the works that make up what we now call the “canon.” Observe the unchanging Yesterday to understand the troubling Now.  

For a few brief moments, Mani Soleymanlou drops autobiographical fiction and questions of identity to study his preferred form of expression, theatre. He has asked the formidable thinker and playwright Fanny Britt, as well as a brilliant team of performers, musicians and designers, to shamelessly toy with this ostentatious subject matter. What is a classic? Is there a set formula for creating one? Is Tit-Coq a classic? What if the Honourable Steven Guilbeault was the Canadian Hamlet? 

The approach may be light-hearted, but the stakes are high. This play shows a real desire to give people today the luxury of stepping back and taking an earnest look at themselves. On stage, Phèdre, Andromaque and other ghosts of theatres past are invited to comment on the chaotic social, political, economic and artistic game that is being played right now in our world in disarray.