WinterWorks
WinterWorks fosters innovation and creativity in the Montreal performing arts community.
February 25 – March 15, 2025
WinterWorks is Montreal’s dedicated home for exciting, boundary-pushing performance premieres.
Providing a dedicated platform for experimentation and artistry that challenges convention, Centaur’s WinterWorks–the evolution of our Wildside Festival–is a celebration of performance that takes artistic risks, asks innovative questions, and explores the very nature of the theatrical form.
Presented by the Centaur Theatre, and selected by WinterWorks curator and associate artist Rebecca Gibian along with artistic director Eda Holmes, WinterWorks presents cutting-edge work by established companies and emerging artists alike, through theatrical productions, readings and gallery performances.
WinterWorks is generously supported by the Government of Canada.
Interested in being part of the festival next year?
For this year’s inaugural WinterWorks, we are proud to present:
Productions:
Adventures
February 25 – March 1, 2025
An Imago Theatre and Keep Good (Theatre) Company Collaboration
Starring Ann-Marie Kerr
Directed by Christian Barry
Original Soundscape by Jackson Fairfax-Perry
Gillian Clark – Playwright
Be carried away in a story that is for the hopeful and the hopeless. Part fairy tale, part gritty-real-life story, Adventures invites us to the roots of the Mother Tree in this time of collective grief, to witness PJ and Wendy on the edge of a life-altering moment.
This story poses the question, “am I a good enough person to bring a child into this big, sad and beautiful world?”
Resurrection
March 11 – March 15, 2025
Created by Dane Stewart
Starring Dane Stewart, Andrew Morrisey and Andrew Boudreau
Directed by Adam Capriolo
Resurrection! is the real story of Michael Callen—activist, musician, and leader in the AIDS self-empowerment movement. Based on the hit CBC podcast of the same name, the show is part cabaret, part documentary theatre, part live podcast event.
Confabulation presents: The Shortest Story XVI
March 8, 2025
Confabulation, Montreal’s original true life storytelling series, is back at the Centaur Theatre with another evening of stories, told by the people who lived them! For WinterWorks, we are presenting our annual Shortest Story extravaganza – a whirlwind of 2 minute stories shared by up to 30 storytellers.
Gallery Performance:
On What Ground
March 7 – March 8, 2025
An Other Hearts Collective Production
Written by Other Hearts…and the audience
For a society that is increasingly realizing the critical importance of place and environment, On What Ground is an exploration of the ways that we find, make, and leave the places that define us.
What is the first place you remember? How will this place remember us? Is this the place yet?
Guilty Pleasures & Queer Karaoke
March 1 and March 15, 2025
Delight as some of Montreal’s best vocalists as they take to the stage on March 1st to share their favourite guilty pleasure songs, accompanied by the formidable Chris Barillaro on piano.
Queer Karaoke on March 15 hosted by Anton May, come belt your heart out to a catalogue of ballads and anthems made famous by LGBTQ+ superstars.
As always, admission is free to all Centaur Music Series events.
WinterWorks Reading:
Bud <3
March 2, 2025
Written & Produced by Darragh Mondoux
Puppet Design & Creation by Chris Wardell
Performed by Samantha Bitonti, Riley Wilson, and Lucas DiTecco
Directed by Rahul Gandhi
A creative, clever and heartfelt theatre for young audiences play that brings together grief and horticulture, Bud <3 is an object puppetry piece exploring the rituals around caring for houseplants and our loved ones through infancy, through life, and in death.
LA CHAPELLE PRODUCTIONS:
CONTE BRIGHT COMME UN DIAMOND
February 17, 18, 20, 22 at La Chapelle
by FANO MADDIX
Conte bright comme un diamond is based on an Acadian folktale that is several centuries old, presented in Chiac in a contemporary form by Fano Maddix. This show is an invitation to be touched by tradition. This is original folklore: we’ve kept the true medieval twists of the story, with its grandma fairy vibes, flying islands, and magical sex work. Because folklore doesn’t care what anyone says: it knows it’s glorious, timeless, and queer.
One show in English, three in Chiac
In partnership with Salon58
FOR EVERYONE STUCK CHASING THE CLOCK
March 3, 4, 6, and 7 at La Chapelle
by CHLOË LUM & YANNICK DESRANLEAU
Between visual art and performance, four characters live in a spatiotemporal loop created by the limitations of their shared chronic illness. Half-resigned yet still filled with hope, they find meaning and purpose by putting on a show about their lived experience.