The Strong Man 2

The Strong Man is a 15th-/16th-century Welsh morality play, with a lot of surprising resonances with our growing culture of materialism and celebrity billionaires -- the main character is kind of like a camp-tyrant Elon -- which then, in medieval style, unexpectedly turns into something amusingly different at the end.  Also in medieval style, we’re weaving live music (mostly set to tunes from the Ap Huw manuscript, drawing particularly on Peter Greenhill’s arrangements) into and throughout the play — and in the long version, there may be some puppetry.

We’ll run a shortened version of it (30 minutes) at the Oxford Faire, then, for the Toronto run, we will append to it a complementary but more overtly religious piece, Soul and Body, which will extend the run to about an hour.   The Strong Man/Soul and Body is a portable medieval play, so our actors will be ready to drop in and play at a variety of locations — outdoors, indoors, at a fair, a university, a theatre, a lounge, a living room — always building the game around what (and who) happens to be there.   Expect a visibly different show every time! 

featuring

• Lochlan Moorlag as The Cleric in The Strong Man and Michael/Jesus in Soul and Body
• Morgan Moore as The Reader/The Wife in The Strong Man and Soul/Angel in Soul and Body
• Deval Soni as The Strong Man in The Strong Man and Body in Soul and Body
• Tallulah Valliere-Paul as The Clown/The Manservant in The Strong Man and Devil/Strong Man in Soul and Body

directed by Matt Sergi
assistant directed by Dylan Coley
in a new translation by Morgan Moore
costumes by Linda Phillips
banners by Angie Lo and Kurt Jiang
with new music in medieval style arranged for Soul and Body by Andrew Albin

The Strong Man, at the Faire only, will run 30 minutes.  

At all other venues, The Strong Man/Soul and Body will run for about 50-60 minutes (not counting Q&A and talks).

We open The Strong Man at the Oxford Renaissance Faire, with multiple performances on Sat 27 Sept and Sun 28 Sept.

Then we run The Strong Man/Soul and Body in Toronto, with all shows free, unticketed, and open to the public:

Tues 30 Sept, 7:30pm, Social Capital Theatre

Thurs 2 Oct, 8pm, Jackman Humanities Building (followed by a Q&A/short talk by Morgan Moore)

Fri 3 Oct, 8pm, Jackman Humanities Building (followed by a Q&A/short talk by Morgan Moore)

Sat 4 Oct, 2pm, feast-streamed on Zoom (click here to log in, please get food and drink to enjoy while you watch) hosted by the JHI Medieval World Drama Working Group and the University of Toronto Department of English

Sat 4 Oct, 7:30pm, Victoria College’s Alumni Hall (followed by a Q&A/short talk by Morgan Moore)

Wed 8 Oct, 7:30pm, Social Capital Theatre (followed by a Q&A/short talk by Morgan Moore)