A new play by Canadian Judith Thompson about the Iraq war and a production of The Pillowman mark a return to edgy fare in the 2007-2008 season at the Canadian Stage Co. in Toronto.

The nine plays in the new season announced Monday evening include two musicals, some hits from the U.S. stage and the annual Shakespeare in High Park production.

The CanStage theatre company has two stages — the larger Bluma Appel theatre and the more intimate Berkeley, which has traditionally staged newer and more experimental works.

For 2007-2008, the Berkeley moves into dark territory, including works about totalitarianism, the Iraq war and murderous rage of Mark Lepine.

Thompson's new play, The Palace of The End, gives three perspectives on the Iraq war. The play, a Canadian premiere, tells the stories of a soldier implicated in the Abu Ghraib scandal, a weapons inspector who exposed the fallacy behind the invasion and a mother who has suffered at the hands of Saddam Hussein.

The Pillowman, written by Martin McDonagh, was a hit in New York last year and tells the story of a writer incarcerated in a totalitarian state and his link to a string of child murders.

The third play on the Berkeley stage is the Toronto premiere of The December Manby Colleen Murphy, which is about the parents of a young man coping with rage and guilt after the 1989 Montreal massacre. 

On a lighter note, CanStage is reviving Fire, the Dora-award-winning gospel musical that was a hit in its 1989 season.  Written by Paul Ledoux and David Young, it tells the story of two preacher's sons — one who becomes a rocker and another a TV evangelist — who both fall in love with the same woman.

Canadian actor Ted Dykstra is to star in Fire and will direct the other musical, Little Shop of Horrors, a light-hearted work about a man-eating plant that features a mix of doo-wop and rock 'n' roll.

Another CanStage favourite, actress Fiona Reid, will star in The Clean House, a Pulitzer-Prize finalist written by Sarah Ruhl. The play is about a Brazilian cleaning lady who is more interested in the eccentric lives of the family she works for than in cleaning house.

Nicola Cavendish, the Dora-award-winning actress who starred in this season's Glorious!, will return to Toronto for a stage adaptation of Stephen King's Misery, playing the psychotic fan who holds a famous author hostage.

The 1979 hit The Elephant Man, by Bernard Pomerance, will be directed by Robin Phillips. It tells the Victorian-era story of a man suffering from a rare disease that gives him a grotesque appearance and his chance encounter with a young doctor.

CanStage is celebrating its 20th anniversary and artists who have appeared on its stages in the past are being invited back to celebrate, says artistic producer Martin Bragg.

The season begins with A Midsummer Night's Dream, to be played outdoors in Toronto's High Park beginning June 26.

In a move that could result in a very different kind of production, Bragg has asked dub poet ahdri zhina mandiela to direct Shakespeare's popular work.