A Touchstone Theatre Production
An Arts Club Presentation

BEHIND THE MOON

Written by Anosh Irani
Directed by Lois Anderson

February 25–March 14, 2027

A STIRRING DRAMA OF FORSAKEN DREAMS

In a Mughlai restaurant in Toronto, Ayub keeps everything clean and polished to a mirror’s shine. When a mysterious cab driver walks in one night, the foundations of Ayub’s life begin to crack. He is forced to confront reality, the family left behind in his homeland, and the dreams he’s abandoned. From the writer of Bombay Black and The Men in White, this achingly beautiful drama tells a story of love, loss, and what it means to begin again.

The Arts Club Theatre presents this remount of Touchstone Theatre’s award-winning Behind the Moon, the acclaimed production that took home five Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, including Outstanding Production, Direction, Performance, Supporting Performance, and Lighting Design.

“Captures both the enduring faith needed to start from the bottom, and the way life can change in the blink of an eye” —Stir Magazine

SPECIAL PERFORMANCES

Talkback Tuesday Performance
Tuesday, Mar 9 – 7 PM

VocalEye Performance
Sunday, Mar 14 – 2 PM

SHOWTIMES: Feb 25–March 14

Monday Closed
Tuesday 7 PM
Wednesday 1 PM & 7 PM
Thursday 7:30 PM
Friday 7:30 PM
Saturday 1:30 PM & 7:30 PM
Sunday 2 PM

CONTENT INFO

Please be advised this piece contains depiction of modern-day slavery, interpersonal violence (biting), as well as references to self-harm, suicide, and depression. Please contact libby@touchstonetheatre.com if you have any questions.

This production may contain flashing lights and water-based haze and fog.

CREATIVE TEAM & CAST

Lois Anderson Director

Patrick Rizzotti Set Designer

Jonathan Kim Lighting Designer

Joelysa Pankanea Sound Designer

Karthik Kadam Costume Designer

Matthew Oviatt Technical Director

Nathania Bernabe & Jackie Hanlin (Affair of Honour) Fight Directors

Jasmin Sandhu Stage Manager

Samantha Pawliuk Assistant Stage Manager

CAST

Praneet Akilla Ayub

Dhirendra Qadir Bhai

Zahf Paroo Jalal

Anosh Irani - web

Anosh Irani has published four critically acclaimed novels: The Cripple and His Talismans (2004), a national bestseller; The Song of Kahunsha (2006), which was an international bestseller and shortlisted for Canada Reads and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; Dahanu Road (2010), which was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize; and The Parcel (2016), which was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. His play Bombay Black (2006) won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, as did his one-man show Buffoon (2019). His anthology The Bombay Plays: The Matka King & Bombay Black (2007) and his play The Men in White (2018) were both finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, and in 2023 Irani was the recipient of the Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award. His latest play, Behind the Moon (2023), was a finalist for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play.

Irani’s short stories have appeared in Granta and the Los Angeles Review of Books and have been collected in Translated from the Gibberish: Seven Stories and One Half Truth (2019). His nonfiction has been published in the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Guardian, and the New York Times. His work has been translated into eleven languages, and he teaches fiction and playwriting in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.