About the Event

Symbiotic relationships tell us stories of survival, reciprocity, and rivalry. Our earth is a complex mix of species inhabiting each other’s spaces while in constant interaction. May it be mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasitic, life always finds a way to thrive and subsist.

Join us on our sixth rendition of our New Creation Nights, in which we share stories old, new, fiction and true!

The evening will showcase 4 new works in a cabaret format, breaking in between each performance. Amidst the breaks the audience will have the opportunity to check out the Garage Gallery featuring various art installations, and enjoy complimentary Vietnamese Banh Mi’s from our friends at Ba-Le.

Doors will open at 7:00pm. Show up early to enjoy the festivities! Performances start at 7:30pm.

A reminder to dress for the weather! We suggest you bring layers and rain gear just in case. We will be ready rain or shine!

New Works

Stampede on Vinyl by André Bessette

Merging of toe, heel,
sound, steel,
flesh, bone,
style, tone,
shoulders and boulders,
hips and billets,
grandmother, grandson
a little bit of fish
and interconnectedness.

Emergency Mushroom Report/Learning Fear in Omphalotus by David Bloom

‘Emergency Mushroom Report’ and ‘Learning Fear in Omphalotus’ are two linked speculative fiction plays being developed by David Bloom. The first will be a live online, interactive presentation; the second will be performed in a tent.

It’s 300 years from now, and two societies have coped with the Climate Crisis in radically different ways.
The Mountain is an underground escape bunker founded by tech billionaires in 2030. They planned to emerge and repopulated the world with an ideal technocratic society. The leader, The Speaker s the last surviving founder. When an exploratory expedition returns with data from the last 300 years, she must face the possibility that humanity has survived the crisis by working closely with another species. Is survival worth the cost?
Omphalotus is a society that survived by working symbiotically with fungi. Armilara teaches the oldest of the young about how they survived, and what dangers await them beyond the boundaries of their society.

In The Symbiotic Cabaret, we spend time with both Armilara and The Speaker and discover their radically different responses to the possibility of humanity and fungi coming together.
Potentially a mirror image to ‘The Last Of Us’

Content Warning: Climate Crisis & Mushrooms

David Bloom – Playwright/Director
Linda Quibell – role of The Speaker
Lissa Neptuno – role of Armilara

Kookie with a K by Maheem Bista

Kookie owes everything to Kousin. Her name, her new life in Canada, her education and all of her fondest childhood memories. Kookie with a K is a snippet into Kookie’s life as she ponders how could she repay her loved ones without asking for help any more.

Maheem Bista – Playwright
Peihwen Tai – role of Kookie

A Captivating Woman by Natasha Chew

A one-woman meta-theatrical show (in-progress!) revolving around Annalyn, who makes an irreversible mistake and faces the court of the audience, attempting to seek catharsis while struggling for control over her own narrative. Fighting between her need to perform a sympathetic character and her need for catharsis, she fumbles through her life, turning over pieces to find that perhaps like Theseus’ boat, it may no longer belong to her. Under your watchful gaze she is a woman “”snapped””, a ritualistic undoing, and anything in-between.

Content Warning: gun violence, (internalized) misogyny, descriptions of cannibalism.

Natasha Chew – Playwright
Jesse Del Fierro – Dramaturg
Sarah Roa – role of Annalyn
Hailey Logan – Props Master

Installations

FAMILY / They do not Come Back by Blake Hobson-Dimas

In an exploration of the meaning of family, Five performers react to their own descriptions of their homes as they dress themselves in handmade crocheted costumes and embark on the transitional journey from person to clown.

They do not come back.

Inspired by Ursula K. le Guin’s “”The Ones That Walk Away from Omelas”” this crocheted scene depicts the human inclination toward reckless indulgence, the refusal to admit the banality of evil, and the ones that walk ahead into darkness.”

Collaborators: Blake Hobson-Dimas, Frannie Warwick, Lois Warwick, Liam Wilkins, Tamlin Vetter, Samantha Li

The Parasite by Anju Singh

In The Parasite, virtual selves prey on the attention, interaction, and dependence of their organic counterparts in order to survive. But when typical organic living experiences, such as aging or losing self-composure rise to the surface and threaten the connection between realities, the virtual self must reduce, minimize and eventually murder the will of the organic self, entrapping it eternally in a static and virtual cocoon.

Content Warning: Volumes can be intense.

Anju Singh – Creator, Writer, Composer
Amy Lee Lavoie – Writer

Disconnect / Parasite by Sarah Pryor

There is a disconnect between how we live now and our true nature. Indigenous cultures lived in harmony with the planet and in tune with their own bodies for hundreds of years, before the western world and its material desires took over, draining us of our humanity. What sinister forces have brought us here, and how do we find a way back to our connection with the universe?

The work explores themes of spirituality, destruction and greed; examining the insidious progress of capitalism and the aged men who profit. There is a reflection on ancient spiritual practices, reminding us of our infinite connection to everything and everyone around us.

Inspired by: Russian photographer, Dmitry Styazhkin

About the Creators

André Bessette is a grateful visitor to the traditional and unceded lands of the Tsawwassen, Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. His roots are mixed settler and Métis from the Red River Settlement on the ancestral territories of Anishinaabe and Nehiyaw Nations where Treaty 1 and 2 lay. As a disconnected urban Métis, he has sought reconnection with Métis and First Nations communities, cousins, and culture.

Untraditionally trained in dance, André found the gregariousness of jigging matched his personality. He has dabbled in Swing, Breakdance, House, and Burlesque. André was educated by Yvonne Chartrand, and other Métis dancers, in Compaigni V’ni Dansi since 2018.

David Bloom is a playwright, director, dramaturg, and actor. Directing work includes co-direction of ‘Palace of the End’ for Touchstone Theatre/Felix Culpa/Horseshoes & Hand Grenades (Jessie Richardson award, Outstanding Direction, Small Theatre), and the North American premiere of Howard Barker’s ‘Und’. He has directed shows all over Canada and in London, England. His plays have been performed by Green Thumb, Studio 58, Felix Culpa, Carousel, Axis Theatre, Canadian Phoenix and the University of British Columbia. He has directed new music performances, been a writer and dramaturg on dance pieces as well as performing for theatre companies across the country.

Maheem Bista Maheem Bista is a Nepalese student in Canada. He’s very grateful for opportunities in creative spaces like this and to be able to meet so many interesting people and ideas! He’d like to thank Rumble and Peihwen for taking a chance on him and Kookie

Natasha Chew is an emerging Asian-Canadian playwright, theatre creator, and storyteller who is currently based on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Natasha has recently had their work showcased at the Cultch and Presentation House Theater, and is especially passionate about celebrating moments of levity, passion, and joy in the navigation of an ever-evolving identity.

Blake Hobson-Dimas is a Mexican-Canadian artist developing a movement-based practice of character embodiment in order to showcase the hand-crocheted costumes of his design. His desire is to create a space where he and other artists can internally generate an imagistic dialogue with crocheted material. Through exploration, images are expanded into character bodies and eventually a living piece of art.

Crocheting has also become a way of grounding his beliefs. If Clown teaches him to extend his belief further, then crochet is the counter-practice that grounds him in the reality of what he knows to be possible.

Anju Singh is a composer, musician, sound designer and media artist whose practice is an exploration of texture through the use of extended or experimental techniques, use of electronics, experimenting with musical and non-musical materials, and electronic processing. One of the core processes in her practice is to use methods of deconstruction and reanimation to repurpose and contextualize materials in new compositional environments.

Anju’s work has been presented across Canada, in Europe, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States at festivals, galleries, and events in a variety of spaces including Send + Receive Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Polygon Gallery, and music venues.

Sarah Pryor is a British/Canadian visual artist & designer. She gained a BA degree in Fine Art in Kent England 2011 and has been expanding her skills and practises ever since. Her work typically explores themes of feminism, voyeurism, mental health and spiritual musings. Sarah works in a wide range of media; from abstract paintings, to detailed drawings, digital art, graphic design and she has been recently discovering tattoo art.

Covid Safety

This event will take place outdoors at Progress Lab 1422. Masks are encouraged indoors but not required. Please be aware of distancing, hand-washing/sanitizing, and the varying personal comfort levels of others around you. Please stay home if you have symptoms of COVID, or have been in contact with others who have contracted COVID. Thank you for helping us keep events live, in-person, and safe.