Stockholm

Written by Bryony Lavery

Directed by Kelly Straughan

Choreographed by Susie Burpee

Starring Melissa-Jane Shaw and Jonathon Young

Lighting Design by Kimberly Purtell

Sound Design and Original Music by Verne Good

Set and Costume Design by Lindsay C. Walker

Bryony Lavery, Playwright Bryony Lavery’s plays include Her Aching Heart (Pink Paper Play Of The Year 1992), Last Easter and A Wedding Story (2000). Her play Frozen, commissioned by Birmingham Rep, won the TMA Best Play Award, the Eileen Anderson Central Television Award, was produced on Broadway where it was nominated for 4 Tony awards.  Her Frantic Assembly piece, Stockholm won the Wolff-Whiting award for Best Play of 2008.  Beautiful Burnout received a Fringe at Edinburgh. Her recent work includes Beautiful Burnout for the National Theatre of Scotland/Frantic Assembly, Kursk with Sound and Fury at The Young Vic UK and Sydney Opera House, A Christmas Carol at West Yorkshire Playhouse and an adaptation of The £1000000bank note for BBC Radio 4. Future plans: Because for ETT/Brink, Cesario for The National Theatre, and an opera 57Hours in The House Of Culture, with John Keane, Peter Wyer and Phyllida Lloyd. Bryony is an honorary doctor of Arts at De Montfort University and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.

Kelly Straughan, Director Kelly Straughan is the Artistic Director with Seventh Stage Theatre Productions. She previously held the position of Associate Artistic Director at Nightwood Theatre and was the Assistant Artistic Director at Tarragon Theatre from 2007-2010. Recent directing credits Witches and Bitches at Theatre Erindale, University of Toronto; 9 Parts of Desire for Seventh Stage (Dora Nomination- Best Ensemble); The Red Queen Effect at the Next Stage Theatre Festival (Dora Nomination- Costume Design); This is About the Push at the Toronto Fringe Festival (Now Magazine’s Best Director); OR, at SummerWorks Festival; The Little Prince for Resurgence Theatre and Soulless for 505 Productions. Kelly was recently shortlisted for the Gina Wilkinson Prize and she holds a Masters in Theatre Directing from the University of British Columbia.



Susie Burpee, Choreographer Susie Burpee creates ‘fully human characters, struggling for connection’ (The Toronto Star). Her work has received Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Choreography and Performance, and she is a recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Dance. Her performance works have been commended for their skillful use of contemporary movement to showcase human complexity. Susie performs in her own works and choreographs commissions for Canada’s foremost contemporary dance artists and companies.  She was a company dancer for Dancemakers, Le Groupe Dance Lab, TRIP dance company, and Ruth Cansfield Dance.  Susie teaches technique classes and workshops for professional dancers and students across the country, notably, 10 Gates Dancing La B.A.R.N. Summer XIntensive and Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre.  She completed her professional training at the School of Contemporary Dancers (Winnipeg), augmented her studies at the Limon and Cunningham schools in New York, and trained in character and Bouffon at L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier (Paris). susieburpee.com

Melissa Jane-Shaw, Kali Melissa-Jane (MJ) Shaw is an actor, choreographer and dancer, as well as the Artistic Producer of Seventh Stage. Selected theatre: Choreographed 10 main-stage musicals at The Rose Theatre Brampton including She Loves Me, The Last Resort, Cabaret, Chorus Line, I Love You You’re Perfect. Improv Comedy Show in Bahamas (Dumigod Players), The Red Queen Effect, Or, & 9 Parts of Desire (Seventh Stage), Skin Flick (TNB), Thy Neighbours Wife (TNW), Melancholy Play (Summerworks), Kate in Taming of the Shrew (Rose Theatre Brampton), Raging Dreams (Theatre Gargantua), When The Reaper Calls & Beauty and The Beast (Sudbury Theatre), Gracie Allen in George & Gracie (Maritime & Ontario Tour). Selected Film/TV: Dead Before Dawn 3D (Alliance), Picture Day (Clique Picture/Dan Lyon), recurring improviser on Howie Mandel’s This Is Howie Do It (Global/NBC), Sajuica on Erky Perky (YTV), Co-host on What’s Cooking (W Network), GravieTrain (Alliance), Triumph Of Dingus McGraw (Indican Pictures), Lost and Found & Grocery Mishap (BRAVO!Fact). Upcoming: choreographing Forever Plaid (Rose Theatre) and playing Beth in Vern Theissen’s new play Do Not Disturb at Theatre Collingwood.

Jonathon Young, Todd Jonathan Young is a three-time Jessie Richardson Award-winning actor as well as a writer, designer and Artistic Director of Electric Company Theatre. Jonathon is a sought-after actor locally and across Canada, having performed with The National Arts Centre, Vancouver Playhouse, The Citadel, The Belfry Theatre, Touchstone, Neworldtheatre, Ruby Slippers, Bard on the Beach and in most Electric Company Productions. Jonathon’s play Palace Grand was commissioned by Vancouver’s PuSh International Performing Arts Festival for production in 2008.  He has extensive film and television acting credits, including work on Da Vinci’s Inquest, Taken, Stargate Atlantis, and a recurring role on the acclaimed miniseries Terminal City (Sundance Channel). Recent film work includes roles in; Nightwatching (written and directed by Peter Greenaway) The Assasination of Jesse James, The Englishman’s Boy, The Fog, and Electric Company’s feature film: The Score. He lives and works with actor/director Kim Collier. He is a graduate of Studio 58.

Kimberly Purtell, Lighting Designer Kimberly Purtell has designed for the Canadian Stage Company, Stratford Festival, World Stage, Luminato Festival, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Theatre Calgary, Vancouver Playhouse, Citadel Theatre, Young Peopleʼs Theatre, Soulpepper, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Theatre Centre, Factory Theatre, Necessary Angel, Studio 180, Queen of Puddings, Tapestry New Opera, The Banff Centre, da da kamera, Dancemakers, Kaeja dʼDance and many others. Selected credits include The List, That Face, Wild Dogs, Age of Arousal, Crave (all with Nightwood Theatre); Seussical (YPT); The Childrenʼs Republic (Tarragon); The Normal Heart (Studio 180); The Barber of Seville (Opera Hamilton); The Maids (Buddies in Bad Times); His Greatness (IART); The Little Years (Stratford Shakespeare Festival). Upcoming for Kimberley will be Caroline or Change (Acting Up Stage), Was Spring (Tarragon), Clybourne Park (Studio 180), Youʼre a Good Man Charlie Brown (Stratford), Beckett: Feck It (Queen of Puddings), La Calisto (Royal Conservatory) and Adaptation Project (Dancemakers). Kimberly is a recipient of the Pauline McGibbon Award and has been nominated for 12 Dora Awards, winning twice.

Verne Good, Sound Design and Original Music Verne Good is a Toronto-based sound designer and poet. Recent favorites include design and original music for The Normal Heart (Studio 180), The Atomic Weight of Happiness (StandUp Dance), The Red Queen Effect (Seventh Stage Theatre), as well as sound designs for Free As Injuns (Native Earth Performing Arts), Communion (Tarragon Theatre), The Epic of Gilgamesh (Groundwater Productions), Eurydice (The Theatre), Tyumen, Then (October Theatre), Jesus Chrysler (Praxis Theatre), 9 Parts of Desire and Or, (Seventh Stage Theatre), Alphonse (Theaturtle) and Buried (Theatre Awakening.) Upcoming: Sound designs for Studio 180 and Stratford, as well as a Canadian tour of The Atomic Weight of Happiness. Verne will also be returning to Stratford for her third season as the Festival Assistant Sound Designer. Verne is a graduate of Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and of the National Theatre School of Canada.


Lindsay C. Walker, Set and Costume Design Lindsay C. Walker is a Toronto based Set and Costume designer.  Originally from British Columbia, she completed her BFA in Theatre at the University of Victoria and has been working in film and theatre since 1999. Her recent credits include The Red Queen Effect, Seventh Stage Productions; John A. Macdonald: Back From the Dead Concert Tour, Salon Theatre; The Crackwalker, Staged and Confused Productions, South Of China, George Brown; Les Quatres Mort De Maries, York University; Macbeth, Classical Theatre Projects; The Drawer Boy, Animal Magnetism, The Georgian Theatre Festival; Vote By Ballot, Mouthing Off, The Shaw Festival Directors Project.  Lindsay spent two Seasons as Design Assistant at the Shaw Festival and was the Assistant Designer for both Into the Woods and South Pacific at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Lindsay was an inaugural member of the Canadian Stage BASH artist development program.  She has also received two Tyrone Guthrie Awards from The Stratford Shakespeare Festival as well as a Dora nomination for Best Production for Macbeth in the Theatre for Young Audiences category.