Bremen Town at Buddies in Bad Time

Award-winning theatre artist Gregory Prest (Soulpepper, Mirvish) makes his playwriting debut this fall with the world premiere of Bremen Town, a rural folk tragicomedy about what happens when we outlive our use. Starring Nancy Palk, Oliver Dennis, Deborah Grover, and William Webster with Tatjana Cornij, Simon Gagnon, Farhang Ghajar and Veronica Hortiguela, Bremen Town will premiere as part of the Next Stage Festival with six performances from October 19 to 29, 2023 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander St). For more information and to purchase tickets, visit https://fringetoronto.com/next-stage/show/bremen-town.

After forty-five years of hard work and dedication, Frau Esel (Palk), the longest serving housekeeper of Volksenhaus, has been fired and sent out to pasture. In a rage, she sets out on a winding journey to Bremen to live with her estranged son, meeting a host of trying characters along the way (and doing her best to avoid the stupid Kite Festival). 

Loosely based on a collection of folk tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, Bremen Town is greatly inspired and influenced by writer and director Prest’s time working in a seniors’ home in his hometown of Pictou, Nova Scotia and witnessing his grandmothers’ end of life journeys. Bremen Town picks away at our assumptions and fears about aging, survival, and the process of letting go.