The Arts Club’s Artistic Director Ashlie Corcoran has programmed the second-ever production of Kat Sandler’s play Mustard to open the 2018–2019 Granville Island Stage season, one she described as “chock-full of comedy and joy.”
Mustard, characterized by Sandler as “writing for the Netflix generation,” premiered in 2016 at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. The darkly comic play follows 16-year-old Thai (Heidi Damayo), an angsty teen who no longer needs her imaginary friend, Mustard (Andrew McNee), living under her bed. To make matters worse, Mustard is falling for Thai’s recently separated mother, Sadie (Jenny Wasko-Paterson), who’s just started to see him too.
Sandler was a member of the 2014 Tarragon Playwrights Unit, where she developed Mustard, and was the 2015 recipient of NOW Magazine’s Audience Choice Award for Best Director and Best Playwright. In 2016, she won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play for Mustard. She is also the Artistic Director of Theatre Brouhaha, where she has directed 12 of her original plays in the last six years, including Toronto Best of Fringe hits Bright Lights, Punch Up, and Help Yourself (winner of the New Play Contest).
Director Stephen Drover said, “The reason I am drawn to Mustard, the reason it resonates with me, and—I believe—one of the reasons that makes it so successful is because of how it so effortlessly blends two timeless human fascinations: the renegotiation of family and the undying power of love.”
Artistic Director Corcoran said, “When I arrived in Vancouver last fall and started working on the Arts Club’s 2018–2019 season, I was also preparing to direct a remount of Mustard at Tarragon Theatre. I loved Kat Sandler’s writing—it’s dark, funny, weird, and full of heart—and I wanted Mustard to be part of my first season here. I’m proud that the Arts Club (in co-production with the Belfry Theatre) is giving this award-winning script its second ever production, and I’m excited to share Kat’s irreverent and exciting voice with BC audiences.”
September 20–October 20 at the Arts Club’s Granville Island Stage.
Tickets from $29 at artsclub.com or the Arts Club Box Office at 604.687.1644
SHOWTIMES
Mon–Thu at 7:30 PM, Fri & Sat at 8 PM, Wed at 1:30 PM, and Sat at 2 PM