CBC Podcasts’ PlayME Returns With A New Season of Addictive Audio Fiction
TORONTO December 2, 2019 ̶ Expect Theatre and CBC Podcasts announce a new season of PlayME, the podcast series that turns the hottest Canadian plays into audio fiction. PlayME kicks off the season with the thriller Butcher by Governor General Award-winning writer Nicolas Billon. All three episodes of Butcher are available now on the new CBC Listen App, or wherever you get your podcasts including, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and PlayMEpodcast.com.
In addition to Butcher, the new season will feature: The Boy In The Moon by Governor General Award finalist Emil Sher, adapted from the memoir by award-winning journalist Ian Brown (January 21, 2020); Crawlspace by Dora Award winner Karen Hines (March 3, 2020); Take da Milk, Nah? by Dora Award nominee Jiv Parasram (May 5, 2020); and Governor General Literary Award-winning drama carried away on the crest of a wave by David Yee (June 9, 2020). Each play will be recorded in three episodes, followed by an in-depth interview with the respective writer.
The five shows cover a range of rich themes and bingeable genres that will transport listeners to new worlds. Simply push play to find yourself immersed in:
- A police station in Toronto on Christmas Eve where a drugged old man is dumped with a butcher’s hook around his neck (Butcher - thriller)
- The family home of a father struggling to connect with his disabled son (The Boy In The Moon - family drama)
- A charming coach house in a hipster neighbourhood that oozes a most distasteful odor (Crawlspace - comedy/ horror)
- Rural Trinidad during the dramatic birth of a cow (Take da Milk, Nah? - comedy/ identity play)
- A beach in Ko Pi Pi Thailand, and seven other unique locations bound together by the destruction of the 2004 Tsunami (carried away on the crest of a wave - drama)
“We are thrilled to bring CBC Podcasts a new season of contemporary plays that will invite listeners to experience captivating stories in unique settings,” said Laura Mullin & Chris Tolley, Co-Artistic Directors of Expect Theatre. “It is exciting to be riding the rising wave of audio fiction and we can’t wait to bring the best of Canadian theatre to an international podcast audience.”
Nicolas Billon’s hit play, Butcher, made its Toronto premiere at the Theatre Centre in 2016. It was produced by Theatre WhyNot and directed by Weyni Mengesha. The play was nominated for a Dora Award for Outstanding New Play and won for Outstanding Direction. The sold-out Toronto production was picked up for the 2016/2017 Off-Mirvish season and has gone on to be produced across Canada as well as in the U.S. and Japan.
A selection of 15 plays from PlayME’s previous seasons, such as Hannah Moscovitch’s What a Young Wife Ought To Know, Kat Sandler’s Bang Bang, and Robert Chafe’s Between Breaths are also available now at cbc.ca/playmeCBC.
PlayME is part of the growing trend in audio fiction that has been steadily on the rise in 2019. Now more than ever, Canadians are listening to podcasts and PlayME is helping to fill the demand for compelling audio drama.
PlayME
Since its inception in 2016, PlayME has transformed a variety of Canadian theatre productions into audio podcasts. With listeners in over 90 countries to date, PlayME is in the vanguard of facilitating international access to Canadian theatre and building an audience and appetite for it from all over the world. PlayME is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
For “Drama on Demand,” tune in to PlayME at http://www.playmepodcast.com where the catalogue of podcasts can be heard.
Expect Theatre is an award-winning, Toronto-based company dedicated to producing cutting-edge, original, multi-disciplinary productions that explore modern urban life. Formed in 1998 by co-Artistic Directors Laura Mullin and Chris Tolley, Expect has a long track record of creating integrated theatre works, radio plays for CBC, viral videos and site-specific performance art installations. Works include Romeo/Juliet Remixed, Static, Awake, CBC Radio’s Tunnel Runners, AWAKE the film and the annual urbanNOISE festival. Mullin and Tolley launched PlayME - an online portal presenting audio podcasts of Canadian plays and related content - in 2016. http://www.expect.org, http://www.playmepodcast.com
CBC Podcasts
From Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC Podcasts is a richly diverse collection of award-winning podcasts that engage, enlighten and entertain. CBC is the #1 podcaster in Canada, reaching more Canadians than any other podcast publisher. With more than 20 series in genres such as investigative reporting and true crime, comedy, human interest and audio fiction.
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Media Contact:
For Expect Theatre/PlayME: Laura Mullin + Chris Tolley
info@expect.org
647.225.6585 or 416.525.4509
For CBC Podcasts: Joanna Landsberg, CBC Publicist
Joanna.landsberg@cbc.ca
416.205.2983
High Rez & Web-Sized photos downloadable here and on the CBC Media Centre.
