Kat Sandler

Lila, a Black cop, has been on leave from the police force ever since she shot an unarmed Black man. She's moved back in with her mother, Karen, and is drinking beer for breakfast. So when Tim, a white playwright, shows up at her door to casually inform her that his play inspired by her experience is being adapted into a movie, Lila's trauma is dragged out for speculation once again. The star of the film, his body guard, and Karen are dragged into the fight, leading to an epic metatheatrical standoff in a living room play about a living room play about gun violence, police, art, and appropriation.

Mustard shouldn't still be here, but he is. Imaginary friends don't normally stay with their person until that person is a teenager. Imaginary friends don't suddenly become visible to their person's mom and then go on a date with them, either. But when those people—such as the troubled Thai and her dangerously upset mother, Sadie—need help, they’re lucky that Mustard's there with a goofy smile on his face. But Mustard has his own peculiar problems. Since he's still around, he has to abide by some rules enforced by unsavoury characters. And, oh yeah, he's falling in love with Sadie, who doesn’t believe he's real. For someone whose purpose was once so simple, Mustard sure has a lot to deal with.

Duncan has always been a pretty boring guy, leading a simple life while working at a bread factory. Then he stumbles upon Brenda, a sad young woman who’s about to end her life. Convinced he’s fallen in love, Duncan strikes up a desperate deal: if he can get her to laugh, she'll give life another shot, but if she doesn’t even giggle, he'll help her go through with her plan. There’s just one catch: Duncan isn’t funny. At all. So he borrows Pat, his second-favourite comedian, to help him come up with the perfect routine. But Pat is having a hard time mustering his sense of humour after a bad break-up, and the last thing he wants to do is teach a lonely loser the difference between knock-knock jokes and schadenfreude while chained to a typewriter. A tragicomedy of three misfits, Punch Up navigates a hostage situation and a life-or-death comedy lesson to show just how far we’ll go for a laugh.

In these two entwined, fast-paced plays, the hilarious goings-on behind the scenes of a controversial election chaotically unfold first at the fundraiser that will decide the party’s nominee and then months later at a debate the night before the election.

The top candidates for the Left are Bill Biszy, a gay Black man who’s also the star of the Sharkman film franchise, and Heather Straughan, the tough woman who’s still hampered by the public knowledge that her husband cheated on her many years ago. Both are the guests of honour at Butch Buchanan’s fundraiser—whomever he decides to donate to will get the party’s nomination, and will run against his brother, the leader of the Right. But so many things stand in Bill and Heather’s way before the night ends. Many months later, when the final debate ends in the need for extreme damage control, it’s clearly the worst time for everyone’s secrets to be revealed, but what fun would it be without some election-day drama?

With a large cast of frenzied characters and piercing dialogue, The Party & The Candidate will make sure you never look at politics the same way again.

She’s more than just a wicked old witch. Baba Yaga is a legend, usually known as that elderly woman who lives alone in the woods and grinds the bones of the wicked. But what if she was actually a sexy, smart, modern woman operating off of morally ambiguous motives?

A detective finds himself in a small, isolated town asking, what does the disappearance of a young heir to a yogurt empire have to do with some random lore about an old witch? Matched by an apprehensive local sheriff, a university professor with a taste for younger men, and a whole cast of curious characters, the Slavic myth of Baba Yaga twists into a new labyrinth of secret lives, ancient magic, and multiple suspects.

This genre-bending comedic fairy tale meets thrilling whodunit gives voice to an antihero of epic proportions while interrogating how her story has historically been told by men. From now on, you’ll remember the name Baba Yaga for the right reasons.