Stage Plays
HEIST
by Arun Lakra
Heist is a fun, mind-bending, popcorn-munching, edge-of your-seat, twisty mystery-thriller-whodunnit.
When movie night arrives at the Lakra family home, it is a rare film that we all agree upon. Yet for some reason, my Fast and Furious son, my Pitch Perfect daughter, my Princess Bride, and her Holy Grail husband all love watching fun heists movie like Oceans 11. Or 13. (Let’s not talk about 12.) Now if only we could agree on the snacks.
A couple of years ago out of the blue, Chad Rabinovitz, the Artistic Director of a theatre company in Indiana (also a heist lover), knocked on my door wanting to commission me to write a ‘heist’ play. His goal was to create a fun, edge-of-your-seat, popcorn-munching, twisty-mystery-heist-whodunnit for the stage.
I said no.
It was an impossible task. How could we possibly bring the sizzle and thrills of a glitzy hundred million dollar Hollywood extravaganza to a simple stage? Plus, writing a heist play, and particularly one for smart, sophisticated audiences who can spot a suspicious butler a mile away, was daunting. Surely they’d seen it all.
I was persuaded to give it a shot. By that I mean I sprawled on the sofa and watched every caper movie ever made (all the while trying to persuade my family that I was “working”). One day, I had a glimmer of an idea. I started to wonder… could we actually pull off a heist… on stage?
I am grateful to Chad for his belief in me and to everybody at Bloomington Playwrights Project (Indiana), Vertigo Theatre (Calgary), Citadel Theatre (Edmonton), and The Grand Theatre (London) for their belief in the show, and to Haysam Kadri for his directorial brilliance, and to the cast and creative teams for their perfect blend of talent and brainpower.
Heist is scheduled for production at The Grand Theatre (London ON) Jan-Feb 2025 and The Citadel Theatre (Edmonton AB) March-April, 2025.
Heist had its World Premiere at Vertigo Theatre in Calgary in Feburary, 2024.
Finalist for Outstanding New Play 2024, Betty Mitchell Awards, Calgary.
Finalist for Outstanding New Play 2024, Calgary Theatre Critics Award.
Top 10 Plays of 2024 - The Calgary Herald
SEQUENCE
by Arun Lakra
What is luck? Are eight consecutive Tails always just a coincidence? And what are the chances of two people having a dog named Cynthia?
Sequence is a mind-blowing, award-winning, edge-of-your-seat science thriller, where two stories intertwine like a fragment of DNA. In one thread, Time Magazine’s Luckiest Man Alive has bet on the Super Bowl coin toss 19 years in a row. And won every time. Today, he is about to risk 880 million dollars on the 20th, until he fortuitously meets a young woman who claims to have figured out his mathematical secret. Simultaneously (or so it seems), a blind professor is paid an mysterious late night visit by a student in a wheelchair, who, on his Genetics final examination, somehow got all 150 questions wrong… a 1 in 5 quintillion chance.
In this theatrical petri dish, stem cell research, God, miniskirts, Fibonacci numbers, and football, all spiral together in an intellectually sexy cocktail. Sequence inspires, delights, and surprises with its playful language, and interplay of logic and metaphysics. Belief systems clash, ideas recombine, mutate and evolve, and order springs from chaos. And the question is asked... In our lives, in our universe, and even in our stories, does order matter?
AWARDS:
- 2015: Shortlisted for New American Voices Competition, Sequence, American Actors UK, London, England.
- 2014: Winner of Gwen Pharis Ringwood Drama Prize, Sequence, Alberta Literary Awards.
- 2014: Long-listed for James Tait Black Prize for Drama, Sequence, University of Edinburgh/National Theatre of Scotland.
- 2013: Winner of Betty Mitchell Award, Sequence, Outstanding New Play.
- 2013: Winner of Calgary Theatre Critics Award, Sequence, Best New Script.
- 2013: Winner of Joanne Woodward/Paul Newman Award for Drama, Sequence, Bloomington Playwrights Project.
- 2012: Finalist – Sequence - STAGE (Scientists, Technologists, and Artists Generating Exploration) International Script Competition – Judges included 3 Pulitzer-Prize winners (Tony Kushner, David Lindsay-Abaire, Donald Margulies) and 2 Nobel Laureates, University of Californa Santa Barbara.
- 2011: Winner of Grand Prize – Alberta Playwriting Competition for Sequence, Alberta Playwrights’ Network.
PRODUCTIONS, PRESENTATIONS, and PUBLICATIONS:
- 2024-25: Production, Translated as Dizilim, Istanbul, Turkiye.
- 2024: Production, Thousand Islands Playhouse, Gananoque ON.
- 2019: Production, Adirondack Theatre Festival, New York, NY.
- 2018: Production, Theatre 40, Beverly Hills, CA.
- 2018: Production, Western Edge Theatre, Nanaimo, BC.
- 2018: Production - Real Wheels Theatre - Vancouver, BC.
- 2017: Ontario Premiere, Tarragon Theatre 2016-17 season - Toronto.
- 2014: Production, Shadow Theatre, Edmonton, AB.
- 2014: Publication, Playwrights Canada Press, Toronto, ON.
- 2013: US Premiere, Bloomington Playwrights Project, Bloomington IN.
- 2013: Workshop and Public Presentation, Telluride Playwrights Festival, Telluride, Colorado.
- 2013: World Premiere, Downstage Theatre/Hit and Myth Productions. Big Secret Theatre, Epcor Centre, Calgary, Canada.
IN DEVELOPMENT
THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS: After his son is killed in a school shooting, a distraught math professor embarks on a desperate and dangerous hunt for answers, political change, and possibly revenge.
CONSEQUENCE: A companion piece to Sequence. What goes around...
DEADLINE DAY: It's NHL Trade Deadline Day at the GM's home. A doorbell rings.
CANDEMIC: A Musical Comedy. Book and Lyrics by Arun Lakra , Music by Dan Perrott. A young man's brain is attacked by a virus that selectively destroys his Canadian-ness.
