The Daniels are back. No, I’m not talking about the duo that made Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All At Once. I’m talking about a pair of creatives that might, depending on who you ask, be even more iconic—another dynamic duo known for their rich, multi-layered storytelling: Canadian theatre legends Daniel MacIvor and Daniel Brooks. The pair are known for a style of theatre that shaped a generation of playwrights, actors and directors: Solo shows that see MacIvor playing several characters under Brooks’ direction, splintering dialogue like a Picasso portrait and, through that, presenting a truer vision. It’s a style that’s led to Governor General and Siminovitch Prize wins for MacIvor along the way.
And what, exactly, are they back with? ReWork Productions and 2b theatre’s production of Let’s Run Away, a play starring MacIvor and created by Brooks that’s having its Atlantic Canadian debut from April 12-21 at The Bus Stop Theatre. The play tells the story of Peter, a stressed-out guy who has an unpublished memoir from the person who abandoned him in hand. He wants to set the record straight, so he’ll read the parts about him to the audience. It raises questions about who we are to others and who we are when we’re alone.
“Let’s Run Away feels like it comes from questions Brooks and I are asking inside our work and friendship,” MacIvor says in a release about the show. “How do we fit into the current theatre climate? How do we fit in the world? Big questions. But at the end of the day, like all of the work we’ve done, Let’s Run Away continues our exploration of the outsider looking for a way in, and ideas about how the self exists on the stage. We’re always trying to do something personal, and in that, to make something that feels true, something good.”
Get tickets, showtimes and details for Let’s Run Away on The Bus Stop’s website.
