A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney

See Walt. See Walt run. See Walt run a multinational media conglomerate, remaking the world in his image. See Walt contemplate that image. See Walt contemplate cryogenics. See Disney on ice. See Walt’s family. Hear Walt’s screenplay. See Walt’s family hear Walt’s screenplay. See Walt melt.  

Outside the March and Soulpepper Theatre “reanimate the Head of Disney” with the Toronto Premiere of A PUBLIC READING OF AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY ABOUT THE DEATH OF WALT DISNEY by Obie Award-winning playwright Lucas Hnath. Starring Canadian theatre great Diego Matamoros as the man, the mouse, the legend—alongside the powerhouse cast of Katherine Cullen, Tony Ofori and Anand Rajaram in a production directed by Mitchell Cushman.

Despite its title, this is neither a reading nor a screenplay; or rather, it’s both, contained in a brilliant 70 minute stage play. It’s an intricately orchestrated merry-go-round of percussive language like a “hypercaffeinated David Mamet” (The New York Times). It asks far-fetched questions like:

What if a powerful billionaire pursued their own immortality at the expense of the world around them?
What if Elon Musk could doodle?
What if a melting world is no place to keep a frozen head from thawing?

It’s a fantasia for the age of Succession