We're thrilled to announce our new season! We'll share stories that kindle hopeful change by taking our hit comedy about depression to twenty-four cities, towns, and high schools across Saskatchewan (including right here in Saskatoon), by producing a new premiere as part of Live Five Theatre’s season, and by cultivating community with new events and scripts in development.
EVERY BRILLIANT THING
by Duncan Macmillan, with Jonny Donahoe
featuring Sarah Robertson
October 1-10, 2024 - Saskatchewan High School Tour with OSAC
Tour Locations: Kindersley, Hudson Bay, Estevan, Moosomin, and Langenburg, presented by the Organization of SK Arts Councils
October 17-20 - at The Refinery in Saskatoon
six public performances & student matinees
Back by popular demand, the season starts off with a remount of our award-winning production that's been captivating audiences across western Canada since 2018. This exhilarating solo show that’s like no other is a deep dive into mental health and emotional well-being through wit, wisdom and absolute hilarity. Theatre’s power to bring people together in loving respect is vividly alive in this play, undoing the stigma around depression and suicide. Click for all the details...
THE UNPLUGGING
by Yvette Nolan
Saskatchewan Premiere produced by Burnt Thicket Theatre
Presented by Live Five Theatre
February 27 - March 9, 2025 at The Refinery in Saskatoon
Next in the season comes the gripping post-apocalyptic journey by the internationally acclaimed local playwright Yvette Nolan (also production dramaturg of We Treaty People), directed by Roxanne Dicke with Tim Bratton, and featuring award-winning Lisa Bayliss (recently played Gertrude in SOTS’ Hamlet), Patsy Tuba (co-star of ABC TV’s Alaska Daily), and local actor Liam Johnston. Single tickets for The Unplugging will be available soon, but you can reserve your seat now by getting a Live Five Season Pass, plus you'll see four other great shows produced by Saskatoon artists. Learn more about The Unplugging...
“…The Unplugging is so funny, smart, and nuanced…” –The Snipe, Vancouver
“…a gentle, emotional, immediate morality tale…timely, fascinating, and necessary.” –Toronto Star
EVERY BRILLIANT THING
Saskatchewan Public Tour presented by OSAC
March 17 - April 17, 2025
SK Tour Locations: Assiniboia, Biggar, Estevan, Hudson Bay, Humboldt, Indian Head, La Ronge, Macklin, Melfort, North Battleford, Preeceville, Prince Albert, Regina, Rosthern, Shaunavon, Swift Current, Tisdale, Weyburn, and Yorkton
Next year Every Brilliant Thing will be presented by the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils in nineteen cities and towns all over the province! Each performance is followed by an optional talk-back with the artists, and in every location we aim to have local mental health professionals and resources available, as in past iterations when we partnered with SHA’s Mental Health and Addictions Services and Canadian Mental Health Association.
Get Up For Christmas Presence: A Holiday Cabaret
November 30 - with On the Boards at The Refinery
This season Burnt Thicket is adapting its annual Christmas Presence mashup of stories, poetry and songs, partnering with On the Boards Staging Company to host a unique holiday cabaret.
Burnt Thicket’s support will enable On the Boards to continue offering its cabaret series that invites the community to get to know the wild, wonderful, and weird artists that dwell within it, with admission by donation. More details coming soon.
We Treaty People
listen now on demand
Our acclaimed fiction podcast continues to be available on demand here and all podcast platforms. Created by forty-nine Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, all eighteen episodes of plays for the ear explore the question “What does it mean to embrace all our relations?”
Burnt Thicket also continues to support the work of emerging playwrights. Breathe, the new musical by Sienna Holden that explores recovery from opioid addiction is in its final stage of development, following the workshop reading held last May.
As well playwright Wanita Bird will be working with veteran dramaturg Donna-Michelle St. Bernard to develop the new script Kneel Down which explores experiences of systemic racism in Saskatoon and area, based on actual events.