Ninth Season
Season Productions
Pandora in the Box
July 24-30 | Tett Centre
Pandora in the Box is a short, surreal comic, arranged into a maze for the reader to travel through as they follow the story. It experiments with comics formatting and layout, and reworks the Pandora myth to look at the nature of Hope. Is Hope a resource, or is it an active process? Can Hope be created? If so, how?
Outheis
July 27-30 | Downtown Kingston
Where do we go when we are lost? Outheis as a multi-location journey that sends audiences on a search to find out. Sent to find a missing person equipped with no more than a few cryptic clues left before their escape, audiences travel through a series of mysterious encounters with strange characters, forced to question what they know and who to trust.
Doc Wuthergloom's Here There Be Monsters
July 27-Aug 5 | NEXUS
Doc Wuthergloom’s Here There Be Monsters is a comedic horror anthology play, for single actor, puppets, and parlour magic that is loosely modelled on the medicine shows of the late 1800s. With audience participation, slight of hand, mentalism, and diverse forms of puppetry, it tells a series of stories about some of the strange creatures that allegedly wander the liminal space of our world.
Living With Shakespeare
August 5-6 | Springer Market Square
Driftwood Theatre presents its most personal production to date, a love-letter to the poetry and plays of William Shakespeare. In Living With Shakespeare, Driftwood Theatre Artistic Director Jeremy Smith reckons with his lifelong relationship to the Bard of Avon.
A Perfect Bowl of Pho
August 9-12, 8pm | The Grand
Nam, a procrastination-prone Vietnamese Canadian university student, sets out with the vague ambition to write a musical about his diaspora as embodied by food, particularly the world-famous noodle soup pho.
La bulle
August 10-13, 8pm | MacDonald Park
La bulle features a one-of-a-kind bubble tent (a character in its own right) and its confined inhabitant: Pierrot, the iconic loner and dreamer. Together, they live in transparent symbiosis. Through mime, dance, text, even drawing, he tries to connect with his audience.
The Fall
August 14 & 16, 7pm
August 18, 5pm
Musiikki
Jean-Baptiste Clamence, once a famous lawyer, a former hero of widows and orphans, the pinnacle of virtue, now haunts dive bars, telling the story of his fall from grace.
Featuring renowned Kingston band, PRINCESS TOWERS.
The Three Musketeers
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Aug. 16, 7pm | Confederation Park
Aug. 17, 10am | Grenadier Park
Aug. 17, 1:30pm | Shannon Park
Aug. 18, 11am | Lake Ontario Park
Aug. 18, 7pm | Lion’s Civic Gardens
The Lakeside Players return to Kingston with another exciting outdoor adventure, a large-cast enactment of Alexandre Dumas’ classic swashbuckling novel, The Three Musketeers! But… oh, dear. Only two actors have actually shown up. Well, the show must go on! Join Jack Rennie and Manon Ens-Lapoint as they boldly pick up the slack, each of them playing upwards of 20 characters and performing a feat as epic as the Musketeers themselves! All for one, and one for… two?
Residencies
Cedar Island Residency
August 13-18 | Cedar Island
In partnership with Parks Canada, Kick & Push is proud to bring back the Cedar Island Residency for the fifth year in a row, this year in conjunction with artists Brian Solomon and Jesse Wabegijig.
Sooth Shivers
August 6-17 | Tett Centre
Sooth Shivers is a combination of site-specific movement pieces that tell the story of environment and community. A team of four will choreograph scenes based on spaces throughout Kingston, while embodying the four elements in relationship to each chosen space.
The Lindworm’s Cabaret
August | Tett Centre
The Lindworm’s Cabaret reimagines the Lindworm as a playful, incorrigibly disruptive character who pops up when we betray the binaries that hold our delicate world together – when we fail, or refuse, to choose only one. This musical comedy transforms and unravels narrative around what is natural and what needs to be corrected, revelling in the many layers of interpretation that can be peeled back from this delightfully strange folk tale.
Virtual Ambrose
August 15-18 | The Grand
Adapted from Single Thread’s original productions of Ambrose in 2015 and 2016, Virtual Ambrose is a reimagined digital installation experience. The mystery is explored as audiences go behind the curtains of The Grand Theatre, prompted by beacons that tell the untold story with the aid of a bespoke mobile app.
Additional Events
Launch Event
July 22 @ 4pm | Springer Market Amphitheatre
Come celebrate the launch of The Kick & Push Festival’s ninth season with an evening of festivities! Featuring dancing, activities, and music by Princess Towers, it’s sure to be a night of fun at Springer Market! Free admission.
Theatre Flick Picks
July 24, 31 & Aug 7, 14 | The Screening Room
The Theatre Flick Picks screening series, in partnership with The Screening Room, is returning this summer! Each Monday throughout the Festival we’ll be screening films curated by members of Kingston’s theatre community.
TK Fringe
August 3-13 | The Grand & Confederation Place Hotel
Uncurated! Uncensored! Unboring! The TK Fringe returns in 2023 with 18 new shows, playing from August 3 through 13th at the Kingston Grand Theatre and Confederation Place Hotel.