{"id":482034,"date":"2026-02-18T02:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/482034\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T02:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:33:12","slug":"montreals-centaur-theatre-pushes-past-tradition-with-bold-new-performances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/482034\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal\u2019s Centaur Theatre pushes past tradition with bold new performances"},"content":{"rendered":"

The future of theatre is on full display at Montreal\u2019s Centaur Theatre as the annual WinterWorks festival returns with a new lineup of boundary-pushing productions.<\/p>\n

Hosted by Centaur Theatre, the festival features four fully produced Canadian works from established artists and emerging voices. <\/p>\n

\"\"Centaur Theatre in Montreal on Feb.17, 2026. (Corinne Boyer, CityNews) <\/p>\n

The performances run through to Feb. 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are shows that are fully produced, they\u2019ve had a residency in the theater and they\u2019re ready to meet our Centaur audiences,\u201d said Rebecca Gibian, associate artist at Centaur Theatre.<\/p>\n

From dance-theatre set to live-techno music to new playwriting voices, organizers say there is something for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal when I program the festival is just to put on stage things that are going to surprise every kind of audience member,\u201d said ,\u201d said Gibian. \u201cThese are shows that are exciting and I think people who know theater will be curious to discover the different ways that theater can be told, can be shared. And people who maybe haven\u2019t enjoyed theater in a long time, I think will come be surprised and kind of amazed at what we have here in the Centaur building.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"WinterWorks festival at the Centaur Theatre in Montreal on Feb.17, 2026. (Corinne Boyer, CityNews) <\/p>\n

Among the featured works is \u2018The Healing,\u2019 an immersive dance-theatre production based on the childhood and coming-of-age journey of Montreal playwright and producer Marie Barlizo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe inspiration of the healing is my challenging relationship with my father who\u2019s an alcoholic and had severe mental illness growing up and also growing up in a home that was quite violent at times and what that was like,\u201d said Marie Barlizo, playwright & producer of \u2018The Healing,\u2019 WinterWorks.<\/p>\n

To bring the story to life, Barlizo teamed up with longtime collaborator Aaron Jan and choreographer Hanna Kiel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been developing shows together since the pandemic,\u201d said Aaron Jan, director of \u2018The Healing,\u2019 WinterWorks. \u201cWe started working together in 2020 and we\u2019ve done, this is our second show together. And I kind of like, whenever I work on one of marie\u2019s shows, I\u2019m like, the writing is so vicious, it\u2019s so violent and I love that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAaron Jahn had this incredible vision about turning this into a dance piece and I think it\u2019s an incredible thing because sometimes with one person shows can be really stiff and you can get lost in the words and in the trauma of the story and what I love about turning it into a dance piece is that you actually move with the story,\u201d said Barlizo.<\/p>\n

Through contemporary dance and a dialogue soundtrack delivered without music, Jan says the production offers a glimpse into Barlizo\u2019s emotional journey.<\/p>\n

\"\"WinterWorks festival at the Centaur Theatre in Montreal on Feb.17, 2026. (Corinne Boyer, CityNews) <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I think is beautiful about the healing is there\u2019s those moments of serenity. There\u2019s those moments where Marie\u2019s character experience is like, oh my god, I\u2019m getting out, then she\u2019s plunged back into the depths of things,\u201d said Jan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message that I\u2019d like people to take away with is that despite the challenges that we may grow up with or have and we struggle with that it\u2019s possible to let it go and have a good life you know but you but it\u2019s the choices we make and it\u2019s also wanting things to change,\u201d said Barlizo.<\/p>\n

Performances of \u2018The Healing\u2019 run from Feb. 17 to Feb. 22 at 8 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee on the final day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The future of theatre is on full display at Montreal\u2019s Centaur Theatre as the annual WinterWorks festival returns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-482034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}