Calgary, Canada

HIGH PERFORMANCE RODEO: This international arts festival is the largest of its kind in Western Canada. Among its 11 theatre offerings are Laurie Anderson’s Another Day in America; New Zealand actor Madeleine Sami returning to her 2000 Edinburgh Fringe First solo performance No. 2, by Toa Fraser; and The Eviction of Stuart Block, a live radio play about homelessness. Also, DMV Theatre Collective of Halifax will bring to Calgary its staging of The Ugly One (a play by German writer Marius von Mayenburg that did so well in 2007 at London’s Royal Court Theatre that it was remounted there the following year). And the program features an international collaboration between South Africa’s Theatrefront and Western Canada Theatre called UBUNTU (The Cape Town Project). (Jan. 5–28; (403) 294-7411; www.hprodeo.ca)

Adelaide, Australia

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL: Prominent on the program of the 2012 Adelaide Festival—which marks the event’s switch from biennial to annual—will be the Australian debut of Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce, reprising his role as the tramp Davies in Pinter’s The Caretaker, produced by Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre under Christopher Morahan’s direction. (The noteworthy production marked Pryce’s return to Everyman, where he acted regularly during his early career and even served briefly as interim artistic director in the 1970s.) The Caretaker was first published in 1960, the same year the Adelaide Festival was born. Before his death in 2008, Pinter saw Pryce play the role. According to festival artistic director Paul Grabowsky, “This production of The Caretaker—and particularly Pryce’s performance—was considered by Pinter as the play’s definitive production.” After playing Adelaide, the remount will travel to San Francisco’s Curran Theatre; the Southern Theatre in Columbus, Ohio; and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The Caretaker is just one highlight of the multidisciplinary schedule. In his final year at the festival’s head, Grabowsky hasn’t stinted on the theatrical catnip. The powerhouse team of director Krzysztof Warlikowski, playwright Wajdi Mouawad and actor Isabelle Huppert are bringing their French-language Williams adaptation A Streetcar to Adelaide from Paris’s Odéon-Théâtre de L’Europe. Lyrical French circus artist James Thiérrée performs his fourth full-length solo work, Raoul. Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó directs the disturbing Hard to Be a God, about human trafficking and pornography, while in the Old Adelaide Gaol, musicians and theatre artists perform songs by Richard Chew in Instructions for an Imaginary Man, inspired by the writings of prisoners of conscience.

In association with Bangarra Dance Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company and the festival have produced Bloodland, in which an indigenous cast of 12 mixes traditional storytelling and languages with dance and song. Another collaboration involves Force Majeure’s Kate Champion, a dance-theatre director/choreographer, and Sydney Theatre Company’s co-artistic director, Andrew Upton. Their Never Did Me Any Harm is based on Christos Tsiolkas’s novel The Slap, which examines modern Australian society through the lens of parenting philosophies.

Perhaps the most fascinating collaboration rolling out this March in Adelaide, however, is the inter-species one at the heart of the Border Project’s I Am Not an Animal. The company will transform the Adelaide Zoo, with the participation of its nonhuman inhabitants, into a performance installation. (March 2–18; (61) 8-8216-4444; www.adelaidefestival.com.au)

Sydney, Australia

BABYTEETH: Belvoir St Theatre was founded in 1984 when its current venue was purchased by a syndicate of arts professionals (among its more than 600 current owners are movie stars Judy Davis, Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill). Known for producing contemporary Australian drama, the theatre is embarking on its second season under artistic director Ralph Myers.

Among Myers’s plans for 2012 is a new play commissioned from Rita Kalnejais, best known as an actor until her first play—B.C., which recasts the Virgin Mary as a modern hairdresser—played in Melbourne in 2009 to enthusiastic reviews. Myers asked Kalnejais to try her hand at writing a romantic comedy, and Babyteeth was the result.

According to Myers, who introduced the play during a season announcement press event: “If you had to describe it, it’s a comedy about a 14-year-old girl dying of cancer. Well, a black comedy.” Kalnejais’s own take: “Every time I try to describe it, it sounds so depressing. But what I’ve thrown myself toward with this piece is a romantic comedy. It is a love story—but more a love story about life.” (Feb. 11–March 18; (61)-2-9699-3444; www.belvoir.com.au)

Thrissur, India

INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL OF KERALA: In 2008, the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, under the umbrella of the state of Kerala’s department of culture, launched this celebration of both contemporary theatre and traditional regional forms of dance, music and theatre. In December 2010, the last time the festival met, its theme was Latin American theatre, and its centerpiece was a six-hour immersive theatre event called Las Indias, created by 45 Chilean and Indian artists, directed by Chile’s Elias Cohen, and culminating in a Forum Theatre session. This February, the festival holds its fourth convening under the broader title “Meet the Masters,” with an emphasis on contemporary productions of master playwrights—revered Indian scribes such as Kalidasa, Bhasa and Rabindranath Tagore, plus greatest hits from the Western canon. The Akademi’s chairman, Soorya Krishnamoorthy, will serve as artistic director. (Feb. 1–8; (91) 487-232-7427; www.theatrefestivalkerala.in)

Paris, France

YOUDREAM: This show by international collective Superamas (based in Vienna, Paris and Brussels) continues to tour, using the concept of dreams to dig into what’s really happening to modern society in the realms of social networking and national identity. But if you don’t live in one of the European cities on its itinerary, never fear: The stage performance is just one way to experience the project. The company has created web series episodes (some of which are in English), accessible via YouDream’s website. The site also serves as a platform where members of the public can upload videos in which they describe their own dreams. Some of these dreams, the company promises, will be woven into the live performance version traveling this spring to the Gaíté Lyrique in Paris. (March 20–21; http://youdream.be)