The Welkin

★★★★★
CRITIC’S PICK

– Glenn Sumi

The critically acclaimed Canadian Premiere of Lucy Kirkwood’s searing courtroom drama.

A Howland Company, Soulpepper, and Crow’s Theatre Co-Production

THE WELKIN

By Lucy Kirkwood

Directed by Weyni Mengesha
On Stage September 4 – October 5, 2025

Soulpepper Theatre’s Baillie Theatre
Young Centre for the Performing Arts
50 Tank House Lane
Toronto, ON

Tickets: $35 – $115

THE CAST:

Mayko Nguyen as Lizzy Luke
bahia watson as Sally Poppy
Olunike Adeliyi as Judith Brewer
Ghazal Azarbad as Peg Carter
Nadine Bhabha as Kitty Givens
Brefny Caribou as Mary Middleton
Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster as Emma Jenkins
Raquel Duffy as Sarah Hollis
Kyra Harper as Sarah Smith
Fiona Highet as Charlotte Cary
Cameron Laurie as Frederick Poppy/Mr. Willis
Craig Lauzon as Mr. Coombes
Annie Lujan as Hannah Rusted
Natasha Mumba as Ann Lavender
Liisa Repo-Martell as Lizzy Luke (Alternate, Sundays & Tuesdays)
Hallie Seline as Helen Ludlow
Addison Wagman as Katy Luke/Alice Wax 

Get to Know the Cast

CREATIVE TEAM:
Set Designer: Julie Fox
Costume Designer: Michelle Tracy
Lighting Designer: Bonnie Beecher
Sound Designer & Arranger: Thomas Ryder Payne
Fight & Intimacy Director: Anita Nittoly
Dialect Coach: Jane Gooderham
Associate Director: Luke Reece
Stage Manager: Sam Hale
Assistant Stage Manager: Scarlett Larry
Howland Shadow Director: Sebastian Biasucci

On Stage at Soulpepper September 4 – October 5, 2025

ABOUT:

Rural England, 1759. Halley’s Comet burns in the sky, and a young woman is sentenced to hang. But when she tries to escape the noose by claiming to be pregnant, a jury of twelve women are gathered to decide whether she is telling the truth. As tensions rise, their task becomes a reckoning: with the law, with power, and with the roles they’re forced to play in a world that silences them.

Tony Award nominee UK playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s THE WELKIN (Chimerica, The Children) is a bold and blistering courtroom drama—by turns darkly comic and quietly devastating—about justice, duty, and righteous dissent.

The New York Times Critic’s Pick

“THE WELKIN is all muscle — taut and intense, energized not only by its moral indignation but by its sense of humor, and by the specific humanity of each of its large cast of characters.” – Vulture

“Ungoverned, furious, layered…sheer gutsy audacity.” – The London Standard

CONTENT WARNING: Please read at your own discretion.

This play contains scenes of violence and mature content, including domestic abuse and miscarriage, descriptions of hanging and sexual assault, child death, and strong language.

THE WELKIN’s internationally acclaimed director Weyni Mengesha, raised in Scarborough, has been the Artistic Director of Soulpepper since 2019. Celebrated for her groundbreaking work and community engagement, her directing credits span Canadian and international stages. Weyni is also a committed educator, mentor, and a producer of youth arts initiatives. In addition to Soulpepper, she has taught at the National Theatre School of Canada and the Canadian Film Centre. 

Soulpepper Credits: Kim’s Convenience (2025, 2015 and 2012), What the Constitution Means to Me (2024); A Streetcar Named Desire (2024), The Guide To Being Fabulous (2023), Da Kink in my Hair (2022), Queen Goneril (2022), Pipeline (2002), Jesus Hooped the A-Train (2020), Father Comes Home From The Wars (2016), A Raisin in the Sun (2008 and 2010) Other theatre credits include: Treemonisha (Volcano Theatre / TOlive / Luminato / Soulpepper), Power of Sail (Geffen Playhouse), Seven Spots on the Sun (Rattlestick Theatre, NY), Butcher (Why Not/Mirvish), and Bars and Measures (Boston Court, Pasedena).

THE WELKIN was produced with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Photo by Dahlia Katz