Prepare to be dazzled at the Toronto premiere of Wonderful Joe by acclaimed Toronto-based puppeteer, playwright, performer, and designer Ronnie Burkett at St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Jane Mallet Theatre, October 5 to 23, 2024.

The play tells the story of an elderly gay man who lives in a fifth-floor walk-up apartment building in an urban centre with his dog, Mister. As the show begins, they receive an eviction notice and are told their building and entire block will be torn down for a big condo development. So Joe and Mister decide to go out for one last grand adventure in their neighbourhood, and have hilarious and heartfelt encounters with neighbours who are rough, tough, sentimental, problematic, funny, and adorable. Along the way, they encounter Mother Nature, Santa Claus, Jesus, and the Tooth Fairy; witness a troupe of homeless players in a cardboard theatre; and show a disenfranchised teen how to jump over the moon in a playground rocket ship.

Wonderful Joe is a love letter to imagination, hope, and the art of filling broken hearts with gold, as Burkett brings this story to life with his signature style—inspired storytelling, exquisite attention to detail, and technical genius.

“Wonderful Joe is truly a labour of love: I design and build the puppets by hand with a small team in my Roncesvalles studio, I write the dialogue, I do all the voices for the characters, and I operate the marionettes in real time during the show”, explains Burkett.

Wonderful Joe – October 5–23, 2024 – St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Jane Mallet Theatre, 27 Front Street East, Toronto

Tickets starting at $35 are available online at tolive.com, by phone at 416-366-7723 and 1-800-708-6752, and in person at the Meridian Hall box office. This production is intended for adult audiences only, ages 16 and up. Children under the age of 16 will not be admitted. Wonderful Joe’s glorious score and soundscape are by the award-winning composer and arranger, and one of Canada’s premier jazz vocalists, John Alcorn.

The world premiere of Wonderful Joe took place April 2024 at Theatre Network (Edmonton, AB), before travelling to Stanford Live (Stanford CA), and UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (Los Angeles CA) prior to this Toronto engagement. As a 2024 Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award honoree, Ronnie Burkett is recognized as one of Canada’s foremost theatre artists and has been credited with reinventing the art of puppetry.

 

 

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist with a focus on travel, lifestyle, entertainment and hospitality. He has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He enjoys discovering delicious eats, tasting spirited treats, and being mesmerized by musical beats.