By Matthew Behrens
Following its award-winning 2022 season re-launch, the Classic Theatre Festival has announced a new summer season at downtown Ottawa’s Arts Court Theatre (2 Daly Ave.) described as a “tonic for troubled times.” It features two playwrights whose works are better known than their authors, even though both were prolific writers for stage and screen.
Legendary Broadway playwright and Hollywood screenwriter Louis Verneuil’sAffairs of State is a funny and intriguing story about the diplomatic deals and double crosses behind closed doors in Washington D.C. It’s fitting entertainment for Canada’s capital city where political machinations are the life-blood of many a cocktail hour.
“Affairs of State invites us to revisit an age when satirical comedies were sophisticated, smart, sassy, insightful, and fun,” says Artistic Producer Laurel Smith.
The Festival’s 2023 focus on theatre legends extends to its second show of the season, the gripping, Tony Award-winning thriller Sleuth. It’s an ingenious story of a mystery writer whose obsession with the inventions and deceptions of fiction and his fascination with games and game-playing sets off a very dangerous and deadly chain of events.
Sleuth is penned by Anthony Shaffer, who also wrote the screenplays for Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy, as well as Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and Evil Under the Sun.
Now entering its 12th summer season, the Classic Theatre Festival will continue its community programs as well, from a loonie-toonie book sale that supports its Save-a-Seat program (providing free tickets to low-income residents) to holding fundraising nights for women’s shelters and refugee-sponsorship groups.
Tickets are on sale at www.classictheatre.ca or by calling (613) 695-9330.
Matthew Behrens is Associate Producer, Classic Theatre Festival.