“If we think of 2023/2024 as the year we took risks, this is the year where we now reap the rewards of that and everything we’ve learned. It’s like we’ve unlocked a new achievement in a video game where things are harder but better and we have access to better things. I’m excited for a lot of that. I’m excited to play with new ideas and be in this new “space” we’ve opened up for ourselves. I think it’s going to be great.” – Natasha MacLellan, TNB Artistic Director
Upcoming productions includes a return of Bluebirds by Vern Thiessen which was celebrated by sold out audiences in 2022. This year, Bluebirds debuts with two Fredericton shows then will tour New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Also touring New Brunswick theatres, O’Brien by Thomas Hodd showcases the struggles of an Irish family during the social and labour unrest of 1914’s Saint John.
In Songs from Finding Wolastoq Voice, Samaqani Cocahq will perform songs from her 2018 debut play, which premiered at TNB in 2018 and was part of the inaugural season of the National Arts Centre’s Indigenous Centre, with friends Pokəholakənəl Witsehkehsolticik (Sisters of the Drum) and Dawson Sacobie.
A unique entry into this year’s lineup is Greetings by Don Hannah, which shares with subscribers 12 pieces of correspondence between a New Brunswick family spanning from 1924-2024. One Hundred Years of Family Life — birthdays, funerals, wars, and feuds; engagements, breakups, elopements, elections, school days, and holidays; tears, queers, debts, and secrets; I love yous, I hate yous… and all the news in between — in Twelve Letters.
TNB’s Young Company is also excited to be touring two productions to New Brunswick students, Tree Boy by Michelle Riml, about a young boy who decides to live in a tree after learning of his father’s plans of destroying it, and Tuhkiyawolotipon (We Are Awake) by Samaqani Cocahq, about three Indigenous youth who discover they might be the only people left on the planet.
Tickets begin going on sale in July. For more details on each show please visit here.
