Villette

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth, Amicus Productions presents its original adaptation of her last novel Villette at The Papermill Theatre, located at the historical Todmorden Mills (67 Pottery Rd, Toronto). Villette runs February 4-6 and February 11-13 at 8 p.m. and February 7 and February 13 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $22 regular and $20 seniors/students. Tickets may be purchased online at www.amicustickets.ca or by phone at 416-860-6176.

Described by Virginia Woolf as her finest novel, Brontë’s story revolves around Lucy Snowe, a young schoolteacher living in the fictional town of Villette enduring loneliness and unrequited love, as she is intrigued by a young doctor and yet also drawn to a charismatic and overbearing colleague. There has seldom been a heroine so reserved and emotionally throttled, who is yet so sensuous, intelligent and keenly feeling. Much of the novel is inspired by Brontë’s own experiences as a teacher at a school in Brussels and the powerful influence of her colleague and mentor, M. Heger.

Villette is directed by Mary Dwyer and adapted by Chris Coculuzzi, the team behind Amicus’ 2014 production of Cyrano de Bergerac. This year’s creative team includes Arash Eshghpour as Set Designer, Lindsay Forde as Costume Designer, Natasha Kornienko as Lighting Designer and Sam Ferguson as Sound Designer, with Sarah Covert responsible for Set Realization and Props. David Liotta is the production’s Stage Manager. A cast of fifteen includes three actresses playing Lucy at different ages: Paulette St-Amour as Lucy looking back on her life, Paisley Aquarius as Lucy in her childhood, and Janice Peters as Miss Lucy, the teacher struggling to find freedom of expression and love. Matthew Payne plays the dashing Dr. John while Chris Coculuzzi is M. Paul Emmanuel, Lucy’s friendly adversary. Kiana Brett is the frivolous Ginevra Fanshawe and Kasia Lee is Paulina de Bassompierre, two young women who seem to be everything Lucy is not. Rounding out the cast are Maureen Lukie as Mrs. Bretton, Renée Cullen as the boarding school directrice Madame Beck, Peta Mary Bailey as Madame Walravens, Jeff Burke as Père Silas and Mr. Home, Sivert Das as Graham and Alfred, and Aviv Cohen, Darragh Cullen, Madeline Davis, and Cabiria Aquarius as girls in the school.

For Media Information:
Maureen Lukie, Producer
Tel:  416-738-8643
maureen@amicusproductions.ca