Lunchbox Theatre

 2023-24 SEASON

Lunchbox Theatre’s Artistic Director Bronwyn Steinberg has announced our 2023-24 season of plays. Fresh off of nine nominations from the Betty Mitchell Awards – including a win for Outstanding Production of a Musical for Home for the Holidays – Lunchbox is proud to bring four new productions to delight Calgary audiences for our 49th season.

 Tickets for the 2023-24 season will go on sale on July 17 at noon, range in price from $22-$35 per performance, and can be purchased at LunchboxTheatre.com or by calling the box office at 403-221-3708.

Interested in seeing multiple Lunchbox plays this season? Buy a PlayPass! Get 4 shows for the price of 3!

Play Passes – 4 tickets per pass

Early Bird until Sept 5 at 6PM MT

• Adult $98 ($23.50 per ticket without CRF)

• Student & Senior $92 ($22 per ticket without CRF)

Regular Play Passes (after Sept 5)

• Adult $102 ($24.50 per ticket without CRF)

• Student & Seniors $94 ($22.50 per ticket without CRF)

To start off the season, Lunchbox will present The Stage Two Festival of New Canadian Work featuring the RBC Emerging Artist Program in September and October of 2023. This festival  will further develop three new plays selected from our recent 36th Annual Stage One Festival of New Canadian Work. The event will bring artists together to work in the rehearsal hall, adding  design and technical elements in the Vertigo Studio, and culminating in a free public presentation. Lunchbox is proud to develop local artistic work for potential future productions.

 Coming to Lunchbox this fall – The Dark Lady

Starting in October, our mainstage season kicks off with the imagined love story of William Shakespeare and Emilia Bassano, Jessica B. Hill’s The Dark Lady. Hill has spent 7 seasons at the Stratford Festival as one of their new generation of leading ladies, and she turned to playwriting when the 2020 season was canceled. This new Canadian play premiered in the summer of 2023 as a co-production by Shakespeare in the Ruins (Winnipeg) and Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan (Saskatoon), and we are looking forward to bringing this story to Calgary. The show will be co-produced by The Shakespeare Company and will run October 10 - 29 in the Studio Theatre at Vertigo. 

Emilia Bassano, known as the possible woman behind the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's sonnets, was actually one of England's first female published poets. She was also trilingual, mixed race, and a force to be reckoned with. The Dark Lady brings these two poets together as they wrestle with artistic collaboration, ambition, envy and love. An entanglement that will profoundly shape both their lives and their work. The Dark Lady helps us understand and challenge our love of Shakespeare through Bassano's lens.

Beloved holiday comedy returns to Lunchbox – With Bells On

Lunchbox is thrilled to bring Darrin Hagen’s With Bells On back to Calgary! A Lunchbox Stage One Festival success story that was first produced by Lunchbox in 2010, With Bells On has since been performed all over the world, and even been adapted into a musical, which is slated to premiere in Edmonton this winter. Playwright Darrin Hagen is a trailblazer in both the creation and study of drag performance in Alberta, and we couldn’t be more delighted to bring this show back to Calgary as our holiday show. With Bells On will run November 28 - December 17 in the Studio Theatre at Vertigo. 

He’s a mild-mannered accountant who heads out for his first night of adventure after a nasty divorce, but gets stuck in an elevator with a 7-foot Glamazon who has created the Ultimate Christmas Queen Pageant Outfit. The stakes are as high as her sparkly head-dress—she needs to be onstage by midnight, or relinquish her claim to the crown. Come see this unlikely pair try to escape in the international hit holiday comedy as it returns to the Lunchbox stage where it first premiered. 

 A touching and sweet love story - Kisapmata

Playwright Bianca Miranda brings us a queer Filipino love story, Kisapmata, which will run in early 2024. This play was featured in both Stage One and Stage Two in 2022 and this diaspora love story is especially relatable for newcomer Canadians who are connected to another homeland. Co-produced by Chromatic Theatre and presented by One Yellow Rabbit as part of the High Performance Rodeo, this play is sure to win the heart of anyone who has ever been in love! This show will run January 30 - February 18 in the Studio Theatre at Vertigo. 

The Tagalog word “kisapmata” means “blink of an eye.” It’s also the title of a punk banger by Filipino band, Rivermaya. Inspired by this song, this new Canadian play tells the love story of two Filipina women—one living in the diaspora and the other, born and raised in the Philippines. Through intimate vignettes, we see the longing, the diving in, and eventually, the letting go. We are proud to premiere this unique love story at Lunchbox, co-produced by Chromatic Theatre and presented by One Yellow Rabbit as part of the 38th Annual High Performance Rodeo.

The road trip of a lifetime rolls into Lunchbox this spring - The Ballad of Georges Boivin

Lunchbox’s spring offering, The Ballad of Georges Boivin, is about finding life and joy again after great loss. Playwright Martin Bellemare is a leading voice in Quebecois theatre, and this is the first of his plays to be translated into English although his work has been produced widely in  Quebec and in Europe. With his work described as “dazzling formal mastery” and “virtuoso inventiveness” by the Prix Michel-Tremblay jury, Bellemare takes us on a journey in this poetic and playful script featuring a solo senior actor playing four different characters. This translation by Jack Paterson with Johanna Nutter premiered at Western Gold Theatre in Vancouver in 2021. This heart-warming theatrical road trip is sure to win over audiences—both young and old! The Ballad of Georges Boivin rolls into town April 16 and will play until May 5 in the Studio Theatre at Vertigo. 

At 77, Georges Boivin decides to “give the dice a roll.” Georges just lost his wife, the “centre of his universe.” But there is life after 70, and it must continue even after great loss. With his three friends, all older than he, Georges sets out on a cross-country road trip from Québec to Vancouver, in search of his first love who he hasn’t seen in 50 years.

Finally, in June 2024, we will present our 37th annual Stage One Festival of New Canadian Work, with up to 6 new plays in development at Lunchbox Theatre and featuring the RBC Emerging Artist Program. Lunchbox Theatre has been dedicated to the creation, development and production of new Canadian one-act plays, many of which have gone on to great acclaim after their premiere on our stage. Come by and be a part of the process and creation! Attend the FREE workshop readings and help us shape the new plays that will grace the Lunchbox stage in years to come. More details to come!