Based on the classic novel by Wayne Johnson, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is a fictionalized retelling of the story of Joseph R. Smallwood, the man who led Newfoundland into Confederation with Canada and who served at its first premier for 23 years. Smallwood’s story is anchored and propelled by one of Johnson’s most memorable creations: the fictitious Sheilagh Fielding, a caustic newspaper columnist whose own battles with the past and alcohol addiction find full vent and expression in her tireless dogging of Smallwood’s climb to power. At its heart, The Colony of Unrequieted Dreams is the story of a man whose career is buoyed and sometimes sunk by his unresolved feelings for a woman he never allowed himself to love. It is also the story of Newfoundland’s final years as a country, the end of one cultural and political trajectory and the beginning of another.

Featuring: Colin Furlong, Carmen Grant, Brian Marler, Jody Richardson, Darryl Hopkins, Steve O’Connell, Charlie Tomlinson, Paul Rowe, Alison Woolridge, and Willow Kean.

Oil and Water is Artistic Fraud’s theatrical retelling of the incredible true story of Lanier Phillips. Shipwrecked aboard the USS Truxtun in 1942, Mr. Phillips was the only African American survivor. What happened to this son of the racially segregated south at the hand of the nearby town of St. Lawrence forever changed his world and became a legendary story that still resonates over seventy years later.

Oil and Water features a cast of ten supreme actor/singers and an a cappella score that blends the celtic folk tradition with African American gospel.

Magic in the theatre is rare to witness and hard to describe, but that is indeed what is happening with Oil and Water… Theatre at its most imaginative.

Toronto Star

…a powerful piece of theatre with an important story. This is theatre that engages its audience for all the right reasons.

The Slotkin Letter

Photo Credit: Clint Butler, Anderson Ryan Allen, and Mike Payette in Oil and Water

An accidental electrocution and an unexpectedly forged family. These two seemingly disconnected events intertwine to tell a story of connectivity and belonging in Afterimage, based on the short story by lauded poet and novelist Michael Crummey (River Thieves, The Wreckage, Galore, and Sweetland).

Lise Lacouer is an outcast because of her gift for seeing the future. But it is this gift that lets her see beyond Winston Evans’ disfiguring scars and fall in love. Years later, their children, Theresa and Jerome, have inherited Lise’s gift and must struggle to find their own place within the community. But for Leo, their perfectly normal middle child, the struggle is the growing the chasm between himself and his peculiar family. While familial tensions mount and secrets are revealed, the Evans family come to see the monumental effect even the smallest spark can create.

A multi-tasking cast of eight tell the story on a copper stage literally flowing with live electricity. Crummey’s original narrative hums with danger and possibility, much like the world on which Artistic Fraud’s retelling unfolds.

Who could have predicted finding love in a furniture store, or finding it with an unemployed lifeguard? But despite their immediate connection, Mark isn’t sure if David is gay. Mark isn’t even sure if Mark is gay. As he falls deeper in love, Mark works desperately to make David nothing more than a friend and to make that enough. Tracking one man’s quest to finally love himself and let it all out,

Under Wraps plays out atop a giant billowing parachute cloth, while underneath a chorus of 14 people shape shift and sing.

Originally produced in 1997, Under Wraps is the show that put Artistic Fraud on the map, playing three sold out runs in St. John’s and touring to Halifax, Calgary, Banff and Vancouver.

…a note perfect piece of pure pleasure…

Vancouver Sun

Is this a rave review? Yes it is! Should you see this show? Yes you should!

The Telegram

Photo Credit: Ron Klappholz, Greg Gale in Under Wraps