Miriam El Abbassi | Arts Editor
Featured Image: The Devised Theatre Festival will be running from March 10 to 14. | Courtesy of the Devised Theatre Festival
The Devised Theatre Festival seeks to celebrate the hard work of the fourth-year devised theatre students by showcasing their original productions, in collaboration with select individuals throughout the Theatre Department and AMPD.
The festival will be running from March 10 to 14, and all productions — Auto-nomy, Five, and Goodnight, Sunny — will be shown in the Accolade East building in Room 207.
The theme for this year’s Devised Theatre Festival is “escapism.” More specifically, escapism in the age of Experience Culture, where the audience is asked to consider why they may feel the need to escape and why that could be considered problematic. This sentiment is cleverly and seamlessly woven throughout each play.
Auto-nomy is described as a physical theatre piece which follows the story of three companion bots who gain control over their own being. Auto-nomy was created by The Vector Regime company, a Toronto-based theatre troupe that focuses on the movement of the physical body.
Their goal is to explore different social and cultural issues through their work from the lens of being young individuals. The Vector Regime consists of Eve Blondeau, Taryn Waldorf, Innokenty Sviridov and Tasha Richards.
Five is a physical theatre piece that examines the parallels that may exist between reality and the virtual world. This play follows the story of four young women who are trapped inside of a video game, in which their race, gender, bodies and minds are used against them.
Five was created by Mind Yo’ Business Productions, an all-women collective who seek to give light to the voices of those who are often overlooked. Mind Yo’ Business Productions consists of Dre Rivas, Mikalah Reid Beckette, Ashley Murphy, and Rachael Henfrey.
Goodnight, Sunny is a magic realism piece about two siblings, Jonathan and Jamie, and their imaginary friend, Sunny. This play is a coming-of-age tale of sorts, with all three characters going on one last fantastical adventure before they say goodbye to Sunny (and effectively, their childhood) for good.
Goodnight, Sunny was created by the Triptych Theatre Collective, a group of young individuals whose focus is to ideas that distort and broaden the limits of reality that society deems to be true.
The Devised Theatre Festival challenges its audience to explore what it means to truly escape, and how that concept of escapism shapes and impacts our everyday lives.
