Gregory Prest’s Bremen Town is inspired by several Brothers Grimm fairytales.Tarragon Theatre/Supplied
- Title: Bremen Town
- Written and directed by: Gregory Prest
- Performed by: Nancy Palk, Oliver Dennis, Tatjana Cornij, Farhang Ghajar, Sheila McCarthy, Veronica Hortigüela, Dan Mousseau, William Webster
- Company: Tarragon Theatre
- Venue: Tarragon Theatre
- City: Toronto
- Year: Runs until Oct. 26
How do you hope to spend your golden years? Perhaps you have young family members who can take care of you, or a retirement account that’ll allow you to live in leisure as you age. Perhaps you’ll downsize your home to move into a swanky assisted living facility, or you’ll take on a part-time job to help keep the bills at bay.
For the majority of Canadians, aging isn’t a luxurious on-ramp to the finish line of life – it’s a source of anxiety. A 2025 survey from the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) showed that 60 per cent of Canadians believe they’ll never be able to retire. For the lion’s share of our population, a looming inability to work isn’t the reward for a life well lived – it’s an omen.
Those ideas and more come to a head in Bremen Town, playwright and director Gregory Prest’s astonishing play about old age, and, more broadly, society’s indifference to suffering.
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Inspired by a handful of Brothers Grimm fairytales (as well as, more cynically, the increasing prevalence of medical assistance in dying, or MAiD, within Canada), Bremen Town follows a withered housekeeper (Nancy Palk) on her journey from unemployment to the (hopefully) open arms of her estranged son.
What Frau Esel finds along the way – new friends! A kite festival! A dancing bear! – ought to lift her spirits, to distract from the sheer humiliation of her recent firing from Volksenhaus.
Bremen Town sees housekeeper Frau Esel, played by Nancy Palk, seeking her estranged son.Tarragon Theatre/Supplied
But throughout Bremen Town, Frau Esel holds fast to her bitterness. “How will I live?,” she laments to no one in particular; “How will I eat?” As she walks from village to village, she recognizes that the mistreatment of Germany’s most vulnerable population extends far beyond her own misfortunes: Every stop brings with it a new justification for her contempt. Young people, it seems, will forever shove their elders to the side.
Palk, a longtime master of the spoken word, is in rich form here: She balances Frau Esel’s scorn with something softer, suppler. At no point does she telegraph the old woman’s inner soft spots – after all, they’ve been calcified by 45 years of working for the same employer at Volksenhaus – but by the end of the play, it’s clear they’re there, childhood dreams and secret wishes just bursting to spring free.
On first glance, Prest’s play is simple: An impudent old woman gets fired and moves across Germany. But what makes Bremen Town sparkle is the fine details – the whimsical paper cutouts of Nancy Perrin’s gorgeous set, and the whip-smart verve of Prest’s dialogue.
Prest’s ensemble, as well, breathes life and complexity into Bremen Town’s inquisitive look at the idyllic German countryside: Oliver Dennis is heartbreaking as Herr Hund, the magician running out of tricks. Sheila McCarthy and William Webster, too, are soul-scorching as long-lost siblings reunited for what could be the very last few moments of their lives.
Prest smartly distributes a series of rotating youth parts between some of the strongest comic actors in Toronto: Dan Mousseau, Veronica Hortigüela and Farhang Ghajar. All three mine the text for laughs, showing off silly voices that amp up the humour in Prest’s script. There are moments, though, when the comedy gives way to apathy and cruelty, and in those vignettes, as well, these actors shine.
As de facto narrator Vogel, Tatjana Cornij speaks to Frau Esel (and us) with a wink, her hands perpetually occupied with an accordion. Like a piece of music, life has to keep moving forward, her instrument’s hoots and squeals seem to suggest, even when the end feels inevitable.
Bremen Town, first presented in Toronto as part of the Toronto’s Fringe’s Next Stage Festival in 2023, doesn’t necessarily tread new ground in its explorations of aging, or its admonition of naïve younger generations. But what makes the story so special is the care with which it’s told – the equal amounts of levity and heft that coincide at the centre of Frau Esel’s spirit, and the design flourishes that add timeless whimsy to Prest’s heady atmosphere.
A final twist, too good to spoil here, adds a level of sumptuous, personal gravitas to the whole affair – a final suggestion that maybe, just maybe, Frau Esel will be okay in her old age. And, by extension, the show seems to whisper: You there, in the audience, will be okay, too.