CATALYST PRESENTS!

We are thrilled to be announcing a new programming initiative, “Catalyst Presents”, launching with the hit indie-rock musical Onegin!

Onegin (ON • YEG • IN) is the indie-rock musical that’s taking the country by storm. Catalyst Theatre presents this multi-award-winning Vancouver Arts Club production on the Maclab Stage from January 17^th to 28^th, 2018.

Onegin wowed Vancouver audiences in 2016, winning an unprecedented 10 Jessie Awards. This thrilling new adaptation of Pushkin’s timeless poem and Tchaikovsky’s renowned opera, brings a thoroughly modern sensibility to a romantic Russian classic. Its high-energy musical score tells a sweeping tale of infatuation, unrequited love, and intrigue. Catalyst Theatre’s Artistic Director, Jonathan Christenson saw Onegin at its phenomenally successful Arts Club premiere in May 2016.

“I remember watching the show for the first time. In one of the songs Onegin sang: ‘Amuse me, surprise me, shake me … try and wake me’ and at the performance I saw the entire was doing just that for the audience! This show is raucous, irreverent and highly theatrical – a hysterical yet touching re-imagining of a literary classic that will blow your mind!”

Onegin tells the story of Eugene Onegin, a wealthy Russian playboy who, bored with seducing women in Moscow, sees a chance for a change when he inherits a country estate. He soon becomes fast friends with Vladimir, his new neighbour, who introduces Onegin to the love his life, Olga. Olga’s sister, Tatyana, falls madly in love with Onegin, but Onegin sets his sites instead on Olga, rejecting Tatyana. In a jealous rage, Vladimir challenges Onegin to a duel, and what ensues changes everyone’s lives forever.

“I was immediately struck by the similarities between what Amiel and Veda were doing and what we’re doing at Catalyst, namely re-imagining what a musical can be,” Christenson says. “It ignited my interest in bringing work like this to Edmonton. It’s the perfect show to launch our new initiative “Catalyst Presents” which in the coming years will see Catalyst bring exceptional new productions by some of Canada’s most exciting and ground-breaking companies to Edmonton audiences.”