Reminder: A play in public space: The Fort at York

Ed: A reminder about this inventive and original use of Toronto’s public space — we’ve been told some shows are already sold out.

WHEN: Thu Sep 20—Sat Oct 13 @ 8pm
WHERE: Fort York National Historic Site, 100 Garrison Road
HOW MUCH: Tue—Thu $25, Fri—Sun $35 (half of Sunday’s tickets are PWYC)
BOX OFFICE: 1-888-222-6608 or www.totix.ca
GROUP SALES: 416-466-5979

A site-specific theatre production is coming to Fort York. “The Fort at York” is a few years in the making and will take audiences on a trip (literally) through the fort. As the play begins, the audience is led outside, where they are divided into four smaller groups of up to 15 people. Each group is taken by a guide and cycled through four intimate spaces in the fort —- a gunpowder magazine, a barracks, a kitchen, and an outdoor fire pit. Fort York is where Toronto was born, yet most Torontonians haven’t visited. Going to see this play gives you the opportunity to see the Fort when it’s usually closed (when the nighttime view of downtown is magnificent). We’ve all heard about the Battle of York during the War of 1812 — but what’s great about this play is it dramatizes what it might have been like just before the Americans attacked.

The Fort at York is a new play from Dora Award-nominated theatre company Crate Productions. Opening for a four-week run on Thursday September 20, the site-specific play was created during the past two years by over 15 actors working collaboratively with Dora Award-winning playwright Tara Beagan. The entire creation process, rehearsals and performances happen on site at Toronto’s Historic Fort York. This production marks the first time that the fort, which is operated as a museum by the City of Toronto, has been utilized for a site-specific theatre project.

Conceived by Crate artistic director and co-founder Chris Reynolds, The Fort at York transports the audience to one critical night in Toronto’s history: the eve of the Battle of York during the War of 1812. An epic theatrical journey performed inside the walls and buildings of Fort York, the play uses multiple forms of theatre to paint a picture of what could have happened in the fort on the night before that battle — telling simultaneous stories of people who might have lived within the walls at that time. Far from being a tour of the site, the play animates several acres, seven of Toronto’s oldest standing buildings and two hundred years of history.