We are Litmus Theatre.

We are a Dora Award-winning indie theatre company based in Toronto, Canada. Founded in 2010, we spent the first half of that decade creating sold out shows in unique locations, such as ramshackle sheds and Ladies’ Parlours in gothic churches. Our work was critically acclaimed for clashing classic stories against forgotten spaces in our beautiful city.

In recent years, we have been on a production hiatus while we’ve pursued other projects. All the while, our creative gears have been turning. We’ve continued to explore the stories that have shaped us as people, and over the past few years we keep being drawn back to the Peter Pan narratives. In stolen moments between other projects, we began working with playwright Jordi Mand on a new adaptation of those stories. In 2018, we workshopped the first draft of the script with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts as well as Ontario Arts Council Recommender Grants from Nightwood Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, and Volcano Theatre.

While we worked on this play about growing up, we grew up. Some of us had babies, some of us watched our babies turn into kids. We watched our parents grow older, we got married. All the while we were drawn back to this story about Peter, who doesn’t want to grow up, and Wendy, who is forced to.

In the coming months we look forward to sharing more information about this very personal project. Stay tuned.

 Meet the Co-Artistic Directors:

Adriano Sobretodo Jr.
Matthew Thomas Walker
Claire Wynveen

Mission:

Litmus Theatre’s mission is to examine and re-frame stories that have a persistent cultural foothold, and investigate the influence they have on our shared experience. By repositioning these stories in unique spaces or time periods, we seek to understand their longevity and how they can be of use to a contemporary audience.

Company History:

In 2010 Litmus Theatre produced its debut production Matchbox Macbeth, a ramshackle, back-alley retelling of the Bard’s classic. The show ran in October of 2010, and due to overwhelming demand was remounted in October of 2011. Both runs were completely sold out and received numerous glowing reviews including being named one of the Top Ten Plays of 2010 by NOW Magazine. Litmus Theatre’s second production was Birth of Frankenstein, set in the Ladies’ Parlour of St. Luke’s United Church.  Birth of Frankenstein was an original script that paralleled Mary Shelley’s writing of her runaway hit novel with Victor Frankenstein’s creation of his monster. The show also sold out its entire run, received critical acclaim and went on to be nominated for four Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Outstanding Independent Production, Direction, Lighting, and Original Script) of which it won for Outstanding Direction. In 2016, Litmus Theatre premiered it’s largest production ever – a full retelling of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Co-Produced by arts-incubator Kabin, and with the generous support of Theatre Passe Muraille, Brave New World transformed the Passe Muraille space into the dystopian World State imagined by Huxley in 1932. The show was nominated for 7 My Entertainment World Awards, including for Best Director and Best Production and won the award for Best Ensemble. In 2018, with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, Litmus Theatre workshopped and presented an excerpt of a new script by Jordi Mand, called When Wendy Grew Up. This new work, a new adaptation of the Peter Pan narratives, will premiere in 2021.

Support:

Thank you to the following organizations for their support.