The Coal Mine Theatre has battled the pandemic and then a fire that consumed its plucky Danforth Avenue theatre. But the acclaimed small theatre is set for its grand return with entirely new and larger digs and a new show, Yerma, which features the stage debut of acclaimed Toronto film and TV star Sarah Gadon.
Yerma is a reimagining of Frederico Lorca’s tragic tale of a young woman driven to the unthinkable by the desire to have a child.
Gadon’s appearance in the production came about as a result of a number of unique connections. But more than that, the play spoke to Gadon.
“As a woman in her thirties on her own journey in relationships and relationships that don’t work and do work, when I saw the play there were so many touchstone things that I had experienced,” Gadon says, on a break from rehearsals at Coal Mine’s new theatre at Woodbine and Danforth. “But then there were also these questions that looked into the future. And I just felt really connected with it.”
Gadon had met one of the Coal Mine’s co-founders Diana Bentley through acting workshops.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, she reached out to me and she said, ‘have you ever read the play Yerma and actually, I saw Yerma when it was doing its run at the Armory Theatre in New York a few years back, and I really loved it,” Gadon says. “And I was really kind of moved by it. And she said, ‘Well, why don’t we see if we could maybe find a way to do it at the Coal Mine.'”
They then set about trying to secure the rights to Yerma from playwright Simon Stone.
“Luckily, my agent represents Simon, so we were able to get a meeting with him, and convince him to give us the rights to the play to do it at the Coal Mine. So that was in 2020,” Gadon explains. “And then, you know, we all went on this pandemic journey of life. And then, of course, the Coal Mine experiences a really tragic fire and they had to find a new space. So, it all really just kind of came together, even though it felt like the seeds to kind the play had been planted years and years ago.”
Gadon is perhaps best known for her work in a number of filmmaker David Cronenberg’s films or more recently starring opposite Alison Pill in All My Puny Sorrows, for which she won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Making a stage debut now and with such an emotionally charged work, might be nerve-racking to some, but not Gadon. “It hasn’t really been scary. It’s been a really wonderful opportunity to grow as an actor. Roles always call for learning. And that’s just the nature of the profession: you’re always learning and exploring and mining and growing.”
It helps that Gadon will be supported by some of the city’s best stage actors, including Martha Burns, Daren A. Herbert, Louise Lambert and Johnathan Souza. Yerma is can’t-miss theatre in this city.
Simon Stone’s Yerma runs from Feb. 5 to 26, directed by Coal Mine co-founder Diana Bentley.
