Artist Livestream
The Cure for Everything Play Reading
4th Line Theatre, with the funding support of longtime supporter Nexicom, continues to offer online programming this June. Like everyone else in these unprecedented times, 4th Line is responding to the need to encourage people to stay home by creating online programming. The company is excited to bring the world of theatre into people’s homes once more, with its second virtual play reading this year.
On Thursday, June 4th, 4th Line Theatre is proud to present a live-streamed performance of Maja Ardal’s one-person show The Cure for Everything. This wildly entertaining play is a follow-up to Ardal’s Dora Award-winning play You Fancy Yourself which 4th Line presented online as a live reading in May 2020. The Cure for Everything can be enjoyed as a stand-alone production without seeing the first play.
Or you can catch-up by enjoying You Fancy Yourself online here.
The Cure for Everything
Elsa is a typical fifteen-year old growing up in the early 1960s. Her world revolves around independence, boys and being popular at school, despite growing concerns surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Knee-deep in teenage angst, her mission is clear: get drunk for the first time and lose her virginity before the world blows up. Though Elsa is old enough to feel the tense political climate, she is young enough to believe there might be a cure for everything.
A comedic and compassionate play, The Cure for Everything is a coming-of-age story about a teenager who discovers that the world is more complex that she could have imagined.
The Cure for Everything was first produced in December 2010 by Theatre Passe Muraille. Directed by Mary Francis Moore and Sound Design by Lyon Smith. The play was later presented in 2011 by Victoria Playouse, PEI, and California International Theatre Festival.
Original Air Date Thursday, June 4th at 2:30pm
Live Stream Event will run approximately 60 minutes. Admission is free and space is limited to 100 attendees per event, on a first-come, first-serve basis.
You Fancy Yourself, a hilarious and poignant tale in the world of playground politics and childhood loyalties, set in 1950s Edinburgh, has been highly praised for its ability to awaken the youthful memories in all of us. Ardal’s theatrical magic gives us a host of colorful characters making it hard to believe that one performer could create so many people all at once. With sheer technical brilliance, and a warm heart to match, she keeps fifteen radically different characters leaping and clashing-even singing, as she steers us through a wildly imaginative but universal story. Ardal’s brilliant, quirky characters guarantee to entertain and strike a chord with audiences of all ages.
Maja Ardal
Original Air Date Thursday, May 7th at 2:30pm
Maja Ardal, Playwright, Performer – You Fancy Yourself, The Cure for Everything
Maja, an Icelandic-Canadian makes her home in Muskoka, Ontario. She acts, directs and writes plays. She has performed across Canada, the U.S and the U.K. with her award-winning solo shows You Fancy Yourself and The Cure for Everything.
Her play The Hero of Hunter Street, directed by Kim Blackwell, was produced by 4th Line Theatre in 2016. Her play HER2 was produced in 2015 by Nightwood Theatre, directed by Kim Blackwell.
Maja was Artistic Director of Young People’s Theatre in Toronto. Her award-winning One Thing Leads to Another, Theatre for Babies recently toured across Canada. It is followed by You and I, Theatre for Walking Babies, produced by YPT in February 2020. She performs in Talk is free Theatre’s production of For Resting and Breeding, in Toronto, and Australia in 2020. Maja’s TV appearances include Clara Potts in CBC/Disney’s “The Road to Avonlea.” She manages the “Voices” writing program open to all Muskoka Women. She directed Harvest for Muskoka Summer Theatre this summer. Maja received the 2002 George Luscombe Award for Mentorship in the Theatre.
KIM BLACKWELL
Managing Artistic Director
“Maja’s writing and performance is a master class in both writing and acting,” says Blackwell. “I am thrilled to be presenting Maja in performance as Elsa, a young girl looking for meaning in a chaotic world filled with uncertainty.”