We are presenting Zee Zee Theatre’s My Funny Valentine as part of OUTstages 2018. This solo show centres around the tragic 2008 murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King who was shot by a male classmate after asking him to be his Valentine, and explores the ripple effects a tragedy like this has on a town. Through a series of moving and funny monologues with characters who are on the periphery of this event, My Funny Valentine cracks open the humanity of a town trying to heal.

“The play really ignites conversations – different people connect to different characters for different reasons. It’s all part of a larger conversation of the ripple effect – that when something happens in a community it ripples out and we are all affected.”  – Deveau in an interview with Janis La Couvee

The Georgia Strait called this show The Laramie Project of this generation (a play written in 2000 about the murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming). Written by award-winning Vancouver playwright Dave Deveau, My Funny Valentine premiered in 2011 in Vancouver, just as the murder trial was playing out in the news. This Zee Zee Theatre production was nominated for 3 Jessie Richardson awards (winning Best Original Play) and the play won the Sydney Risk Prize for Outstanding Original Play. The show was re-mounted the following year, and a production from Lethbridge, Ab toured to Dublin for the International Gay Theatre Festival, where it was nominated for the Oscar Wilde Award (outstanding writing).

Zee Zee Theatre has re-mounted the show for the 10th Anniversary this year, and has toured to Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and played in Vancouver. Four actors have played in this solo show, and every time the show is produced, Deveau works on the text, altering and rewriting to reflect our current world and climate, shifting the final monologue. This tour continues with stops in Victoria, Ladysmith/Cowichan Performing Arts Centre and Surrey this month.

This play has a history with OUTstages, too. In 2015, we included a reading of a 40 minute excerpt in a Playreading Double Bill as the first event of the inaugural festival, read by local actor Kiaran Wilson and directed by Sean Guist.

My Funny Valentine plays ONE NIGHT ONLY at OUTstages 2018.
Thursday June 21, 7pm
Metro Studio – 1411 Quadra Street
Written by Dave Deveau
Performed by Connor Wylie
Directed by Cameron Mackenzie

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