Crackers
A story of two parrots who are definitely not “birds of a feather.”
Eric, a fifty-year-old scarlet macaw enjoys reading the paper that lines his cage and watching his favourite daytime soap opera. Then young green amazon parrot Salvadora shows up and occupies the cage next to him. Salvadora is not at all happy and constantly complains to Eric. Eric tries to ignore her but then begins to suspect that Salvadora is much more than the whining boarder she purports to be.
Crackers premiered in 2012 at the Orleans Star-L’Express Music Rehearsal Hall, Shenkman Arts Centre, Ottawa Ontario, by Tale Wagging Theatre, directed by Arras Hopkins. This production received an ARTicipate Endowment Fund grant.
In June 2015, a revised version of Crackers was produced by Tale Wagging Theatre for the Ottawa Fringe Festival.
Debate Debacle
The Prime Minister’s sudden change in behaviour forces his staff to concoct a wild scheme to cancel a TV debate.
The Prime Minister is getting ready for a televised election debate. However, his sudden change in character to a pleasant, happy-go-lucky fellow has his staff worried and confused. When the PM’s bizarre behaviour gets out of control, and involves Martians, his staff concoct a wild scheme to cancel the debate and get him out of the building.
Previous Season
Les Belles-Soeurs
Written by Michel Tremblay
Directed by Lorraine Hopkins & Sue Armstrong
November 21-29, 2025 at the Gladstone Theatre
The tragi-comedy Les Belles-Soeurs is among the most important plays in French Canadian theatre history: for the original’s foray into joual - the working class dialect of Quebec - but also for its brave depiction of working-class women at their worst.
Written by Michel Tremblay in 1965 at the time of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec, he is arguably one of Canada’s best living playwrights. Les Belles-Soeurs portrays 15 women expressing their anger, desperation and frustration loudly, rudely and audaciously.
Germaine Lauzon has won a million stamps in a contest. She invites her family and neighbours into her kitchen to help paste them into booklets. Fighting for any power in their suffocating lives, the women yell, backstab, dream and steal in grand theatrical style.
We are proud to have the Stephen Lewis Foundation's Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign as the recipient of our fundraising efforts for this production. To learn more about this important cause, visit here.
Founded in 2001, Phoenix Players is a community theatre company providing affordable, high quality live theatre entertainment to communities in and around Ottawa. We perform comedies, mysteries and dramas from the Canadian, American and English repertory. Our plays are selected for their entertainment value and audience appeal and are performed at the Gladstone Theatre in Ottawa's Little Italy. As a registered charity, we welcome donations to support our development by offering workshops in theatre arts and contributing to the resources of the Gladstone.
