Icarus Theatre founder and artistic director Anthony Goncharov describes his company’s upcoming season as “our most thrilling and ambitious year of theatre yet”.
“This all female-written slate of shows centres around women’s stories—astronauts, sorority sisters, software engineers, and friends,” Goncharov declares in a news release. “The plays themselves are loud, moving, and modern—dealing with new-age issues and themes that aren’t regularly featured on-stage.”
The image above is promoting playwright Liliana Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself. Directed by Emily Anne Corcoran at the Theatre Centre BMO Incubator, it’s the second play of the season.
Winner of the 2019 Yale Drama Prize, How to Defend Yourself is set in a college gym. There, a sorority leader leads a self-defence workshop in the wake of a sexual assault against one of members of the sorority. The cast includes Parastoo Amanzadeh, Paula Goldie, Anthony Goncharov, Sasha Khan, Heeyun Park (박희윤), Samel Sunil, and Kaeley Jade Wiebe
In a 2019 interview published in Dramatics, playwright Padilla stated that conditions for violence are created by “the systemic belief that you need to dominate another in order to have power”.
“I hope that’s what Defend expresses: that violence has a reverb everywhere … to the person who commits the act of violence, to the person who receives, to the entire community,” Padilla told writer Anita Martin.
Icarus Theatre will open its season with the Canadian premiere of Los Angeles playwright Amy Berryman’s Walden. It will be directed by Erik Richards at the Theatre Centre BMO Incubator.
Set in the future in an isolated cabin, it revolves around two sisters, played by Charlotte Dennis and Emily Anne Corcoran. One is a NASA botanist who just returned from a yearlong Moon mission and the other is a former NASA architect. The architect is in a relationship with a climate activist, played by Oshen Aoun. The sisters try to overcome old rivalries in the face of a growing ecological crisis for humanity.
Icarus closes season with psychological thriller
In addition, Icarus Theatre will present the Toronto premiere of Mob, a psychological thriller written by Ottawa-born and Quebec-raised playwright and actor Catherine-Anne Toupin. Goncharov will direct the English version, translated by Chris Campbell, at VideoCab.
Mob is set in a B&B in the country visited by a woman named Sophie (Krystina Bojanowski), who is angry over losing her job in the city. She makes an unlikely connection with the B&B manager’s nephew, who is also unemployed. The play explores how well-adjusted people can engage in sadistic behaviour online.
Goncharov defines all three productions as “the kind of shows that will keep you talking in the lobby or the car ride home”.
“We were incredibly lucky to get our hands on any of these pieces at all,” the artistic director adds, “and I think the exceptionally high-calibre talent we’ve hired will do them every bit of justice they deserve.”
The Icarus 2026/27 season pass is $90 and can be purchased on its website. The Toronto Spark is on Bluesky @torontospark.bsky.social.
