Now entering its 12th season, Sage Theatre is taking on the biggest play it has ever mounted in its second production of the season: Wajdi Mouawad’s Scorched (Nov. 19 to 28).

The play tells the story of twins who, upon the death of their mother, embark upon a quest — requested in her will — to deliver letters to a father they thought was dead and to a brother they never knew existed.

Mouawad is a Canadian playwright of Lebanese descent whose family first fled to France and then immigrated to Canada to escape Lebanon’s civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 1990.

Sage Theatre artistic director Kelly Reay says he has had his sights on Scorched for a couple of years.“It was being done everywhere but Calgary,” says Reay, noting that it was appearing in many A-level houses, such as Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre. “For Sage to get this is pretty cool,” he adds.

While Scorched is inspired by Lebanon’s civil war, Reay says the play is never specific about what country or what conflict. “It’s political, but not issue-based,” he says. “But, what transcends all that is the beautiful story of a family searching for its roots.”

Reay says he programmed the rest of Sage’s season to complement Scorched and that means a season with “international flavour.”

The first performance of the season is Heroes (Sept. 24 to Oct. 3), by Gerald Sibleyras and translated by Tom Stoppard. It’s a comedy set in 1959 about three veterans from the First World War plotting their escape from a retirement home in France.

“It’s a cool departure from what we usually do,” says Reay, noting that the opportunity to present a play featuring three characters over the age of 60 is rare.

He likens Heroes to last year’s production of The Attic, The Pearls & Three Fine Girls — a comedy that is still “intellectually stimulating.” Terry Gunvordahl, Duval Lang and Grant Reddick will play the three veterans.

The final play of Sage’s season is Irvine Welsh’s Filth (March 11 to 20).

Welsh is best-known for his novel Trainspotting, that went on to become a film starring Ewan McGregor, and which Sage performed in 2006.

“Filth sits in the same urban, visceral world of Trainspotting. People who relate to that will be familiar with this world,” says Reay.

The one-man show is actually a dark comedy and, in it, the actor takes on more than 30 different characters. At the centre of it is anti-hero detective sergeant Bruce Robertson, a corrupt cop who begins to face opposition — in the form of truth and ethical conscience — courtesy of the tapeworm in his intestines.

Finishing off Sage Theatre’s 2009-2010 season is the sixth annual Ignite! Festival for emerging artists. “This season will definitely make a splash,” says Reay.