Horseshoes & Hand Grenades
Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Theatre creates and produces original theatre, ranging from new Canadian works to pieces from the international repertoire. We foster the development of our artists through collaborative processes exploring new forms of theatre practice. We educate and engage our audience through our artistic works as well as our community outreach programs.
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Theatre is a theatre that is willing to speak openly about subjects that most find difficult to even mention. They touch upon personal and political views and topics of which may seem uncomfortable to others, but this company is here to break the boundaries of violence, corruption, idealism, love, hate, and so many other themes. Through a collaborative process, they wish to bring forth startling, brief theatre that makes you question what is coming of this world and all the people that live in it, and how my role as a person impacts the world we live in.
Company Mandate
Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Theatre is committed to the pillars of story, investigation, collaboration and risk. Never afraid to shine light into darkness, we create theatre that reveals the vulnerable heart and champions the brave idea.
Past Projects
- You Are Here : 2004-2005 Once an idealistic writer and now a famous journalist, Alison finds herself torn between who she was and who she has become. Her life spirals downwards and she is left to re-evaluate her life and the decisions she’s made. This play was nominated for the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Production, and was the winner of the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Performance Lead Actress: Colleen Wheeler and for Outstanding Performance Supporting Actress: Alexa Dubreuil.
- The Darling Family : 2005 Nominated for a Governor General Award, this is the story of two new lovers who unexpectedly get pregnant and how these two recent strangers find a way to grow together romantically and responsibly. Written with beautiful lyricism, this play shows us the journey one takes of brutal truth behind an unplanned pregnancy.
- 4:48 Psychosis : 2008 Struggling through mental illness, we are taken through a woman’s mind where she is trying to find her sanity and her will to live. This play touches upon the need of love and the blurred lines between reality and delusions through this woman’s meetings with a lover and a doctor. This play was nominated for the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Performance by and Actress in a Lead Role, and won the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Sound Design: Antoin Bédard, and for Outstanding Set Design: Ana Capelluto.
- Palace of the End: 2009 Consisting of three different yet similar monologues, Palace of the End shows 3 various view points on the reality of war, those being a funny tale about a soldier who took the fall of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, a weapons inspector who forewarns people about the Invasion in Iraq, and finally a tea party where two different people suffer the same tragic despairs because of Saddam Hussein.
- RE:UNION : 2011 + 2015 first of the trilogy An infant girl, a jug of kerosene, and a box of matches under the watch of the Secretary of Defense completes the final act of witness against the Vietnam War. Thirty six years lady, the infant girl now grown up seeks to confront the secretary of defense, the truth behind her father, and all the painful memories that go along with it.
- Except in the Unlikely Event of War: 2013 second of the trilogy Known as a dark comedy, this play explores art, politics, war, and the grey zones. This distinctly Canadian work is broken into 3 stories; a loose adaptation of Report form Iron Mountain by Leonard C. Lewin, a stimulating analysis of war and its necessity to the world, and the future of Canada being set in the Arctic Landscape due to the world’s unsteady community.
- This Stays in the Room : 2014 A collective creation based off of true stories and experiences of the creative team. Through text, song, choreography, and photography/video, this play is a courageous and humorous collection of shameful and forgiving stories, leading the audience on a personal journey, “to share a uniquely human state that is common to us all.”http://horseshoesandhandgrenades.ca/past-projects/the-forgiveness-project/
- Suit Up : 2015 Suit Up is based off of the tragic events surrounding the 2013 factory collapsing in Bangladesh. We are faced with two different worlds leading up to a tragedy that could’ve been avoided. One of a woman working in a factory, and that of a chief financial officer who is having a successful fiscal quarter. This play demonstrates how revolution is just around the corner.
- Daisy : 2016 final of the trilogy “Based on true events, Daisy explores the moment in television history that launched the age of negative advertising, and forever changed how we elect our leaders. War was the objective. Peace was the bait. Everyone got duped.” Daisy was workshopped in Toronto’s Studio 180 Theatre, had a pre-production workshop at the Icicle Creek New Play Festival, as well as being picked as “Best New Play” at the BWW 2016 Seattle Critic’s Choice Award.
