One of the most acclaimed and frequently produced Canadian plays of recent years is making its Peterborough debut, featuring many of the artists who brought it to life during its 2023 world premiere at the Stratford Festival.
New Stages Theatre is presenting a staged reading of Nick Green’s Casey and Diana at 7 p.m. on Sunday, November 15 at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough.
New Stages artistic director Mark Wallace tells kawarthaNOW there are “just a handful seats left for sale in the balcony,” so anyone hoping to attend should not delay in purchasing tickets.
“We really have an incredible cast for this one,” Wallace adds. “So many actors love this play.”
That cast includes four of the six actors from the Stratford production, reunited with the original production’s director Andrew Kushnir.
Sean Arbuckle returns as Thomas, Laura Condlln as Pauline, Davinder Malhi as Andre, and Peterborough’s own Linda Kash as Marjorie. They will be joined by Ordena Stephens-Thompson as Vera and Chloë Dirksen as Diana.
Sarah Lazzarino will stage manage the reading, with sound design by Debashis Sinha, who also designed sound for the original Stratford production.
Casey and Diana is based on the historic 1991 visit by Diana, Princess of Wales, to Casey House, a Toronto hospice caring for people with HIV/AIDS.
Set around the anticipation of Diana’s arrival, Green’s play focuses not only on the famous visitor but on the residents, caregivers, friends, and family members at Casey House during a period when people living with HIV/AIDS faced widespread fear, prejudice, and stigma.
The result is a play New Stages describes as dramatic, humorous, and deeply moving.
Originally commissioned by the Stratford Festival, Casey and Diana had its world premiere at the festival’s Studio Theatre in June 2023. Kushnir directed the production, which featured Arbuckle, Condlln, Kash, and Malhi along with Krystin Pellerin as Diana and Sophia Walker as Vera.
The production subsequently had a sold-out engagement with Soulpepper Theatre Company in Toronto in early 2024, with most of the actors from the Stratford production reprising their roles. The Soulpepper production received the 2024 Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best New Canadian Play and the 2024 Heritage Toronto Public History Award, along with a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination.
The play has since seen productions at theatres including Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg, Neptune Theatre in Halifax, Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver, Alberta Theatre Projects in Calgary, Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, American Players Theatre in Wisconsin, and more.
Casey and Diana focuses on a day that became an important part of the history of Casey House and the response to HIV/AIDS in Canada.
Diana had already become internationally known for challenging the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS — including shaking hands with those dying from the disease — when she visited the Toronto hospice in 1991.
Her visit brought considerable public attention to Casey House and the people receiving care there at a time when misinformation and fear about HIV remained widespread.
Green developed Casey and Diana after researching the visit and speaking with people connected to Casey House, using the historic event as the setting for a story about compassion, dignity, friendship, and loss.
“I won’t lie, it was a tough play to write,” Green said in a 2025 interview with J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing.
“I remember going on a little mini-retreat to a friend’s cottage in the middle of winter, and the enormity of the entire thing kind of landed on me like an avalanche. There I was setting out to write about a beloved figure and a hugely significant Canadian institution.”
The November 15 performance at the Market Hall is a staged reading rather than a fully mounted production, putting the focus on Green’s script and the performances of the six-member cast. The approximately two-hour performance includes an intermission. Due to strong language and mature themes, it is recommended for audiences aged 14 and older.
Tickets are $30 plus fees. New Stages also offers a $20 welcome rate for people who need a lower-priced option and a $40 pay-it-forward rate that helps support the welcome rate.
With the performance nearly sold out, tickets for Casey and Diana can be purchased at markethall.org/new-stages or by calling the Market Hall box office at 705-775-1503.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be media sponsor of New Stages Theatre Company’s 2025-26 season.
