When Theatre Passe Muraille Artistic Director Andy McKim was putting together the 2009-2010 season, he wanted a theme that would unify the various elements he’d experienced not only as an artist, but as a Torontonian.

Stephen Adly Guirgis, the celebrated playwright, screenwriter, and actor, writes works that ask a lot of audiences, but give a lot back too. His 2005 play, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, runs close to three hours and features a cast of fifteen playing a variety of historical, religious, and biblical roles.

The first thing you’ll notice about the current production of Glengarry Glen Ross on at the Young Centre is designer Ken Macdonald’s elaborate chalkboard backdrop, filled with cheap and tasty Chinese dishes; accenting the board are two immense, cherry-red booths. It’s here we meet the hot-headed cast of characters inhabiting David Mamet’s world of smooth-talking hustlers and slick-suited muggers. The real estate office depicted in the play has a contest: top salesman wins a Cadillac Eldorado, loser is fired. It’s a brutal world, full of people who are considered expendable. Cheap, fast, marginally satisfying –the food board’s an apt symbol of this world of corruption and hustling.

Working with siblings doesn’t have to be a slog. Just ask Todd Thomson. The Vancouver-based actor is currently onstage in The Patient Hour, written by his sister, Kristen Thomson. Far from being difficult, however, Thomson says the entire experience has been pure joy.