DION: A Rock Opera - WORLD PREMIERE

By Ted Dykstra and Steven Mayoff
Director: Peter Hinton- Davis
Musical Director: Bob Foster

Starring: Max Borowski, Saaccha Dennis, Kaden Forsberg, Allan Louis, Allister MacDonald , Jacob MacInnis, Sate, Carly Street, and Kelsey Verzotti

Band: Bob Foster, Haneul Yi and Kat McLevey

Creative Producer: Diana Bentley
Associate Director: Keira Sangster
Associate Musical Director: Haneul Yi
Stage Manager: Fiona Jones
Assistant Stage Manager: Dennie Theodore

Set and Costume Designer: Scott Penner
Lighting Design: Bonnie Beecher
Sound Design: Tim Lindsay
Assistant Lighting Designer: Émilie Trimbee

DION: A Rock Opera is a fully sung rock opera based on Euripedes’ The Bacchae. Book by Prince Edward Island’s poet/novelist Steven Mayoff, music by The Coal Mine’s co-founder, Ted Dykstra. Four years in the making, The Coal Mine has developed the show from scratch, with two full cast two-week workshops over that time.

Pentheus, the conservative right wing leader of a city-state “somewhere in time” on this earth, arrives home from a trip to learn that all the disenfranchised people in his kingdom have taken to the hills, following a non-binary and self-proclaimed Demi-God named Dion. The runaways from society, rumour has it, are drinking a strange brew, and are often seen running through the hills naked in states of ecstasy. The runaways include almost all of society’s women, including his own mother Agave and his uncle Cadmus.

Pentheus has heard of this Dion. They are his cousin. They claim Zeus as a father, and Pentheus’ aunt Semele as a mother. Pentheus has made it clear the story is a lie. Semele made it up to excuse her wontoness. Dion is just a human, says Pentheus. Dion wants revenge for this slandering of his mother. That is why they are back. That is why they allow themselves to be captured and brought to Pentheus in chains.

What ensues is this leader being seduced into dressing up as a woman and going to the hills to see for himself, where he meets his end…

Canadian Theatre titan Peter Hinton and Associate Director Kiera Sangster will helm this world premiere in the intimate environment that has made the Coal Mine one of our country’s most lauded small theatres. Bob Foster, (Come From Away) the most sought after musical director in the country, will serve as Musical Director with Associate Musical Director Hanuel Li.

Sacred and profane, DION: A Rock Opera promises to be one of the biggest events of the Toronto Theatre season…