Intrepid Theatre

Announcing UNO Fest Online! Monstrous will be presented as a part of the Week 2 online offerings. You can see exclusive video pieces from this show online, and join Sarah for a free Facebook Live and playreading excerpt on May 5. 

Who are you when you don’t know what you are? Monstrous follows the protagonist’s journey across continents, centuries, and musical genres as she sifts through the facts and fictions of her mixed-up, mixed-race family history. Integrating storytelling, multi-genre dance, music, song, projections, and audience interaction, it is a quest for roots, remembrance, and belonging; it is also a cutting, hard-hitting provocation about “multiculturalism” in Canada. Monstrous is a startling wake-up call that puts pressure on how accepting we think we are.

“I thought my heart would explode.” Peter Froelich, University of Ottawa Professor of Theatre (Ottawa)

“smart, disarming and it opens a discussion that many would rather avoid” — Eric Coates (GCTC, for Apt613, Ottawa)

UNO Fest Online Meet The Artists – Sarah Waisvisz

Credits:

Director: Eleanor Crowder
Dramaturge: Emily Pearlman
Choreographer: Shara Weaver
Lighting Design: Eleanor Crowder
Sound Design and Composition: Mikki Bradshaw
Stage Manager (premiere): Madeleine Boyes-Manseau
Photos by Chris Snow

About the artist:

Sarah Waisvisz, creator and performer

Born in Germany and raised Jewishly in France and Canada by a Dutch father and an Afro-Caribbean-French mother, Sarah lives at the intersection. She is a playwright, dramaturge, and multi-disciplinary performer with training in dance and physical theatre (classical ballet, puppetry, acrobatics, stilts, West African dance styles). Her solo script Monstrous, about the Afro-diaspora experience and mixed-race identity, was published in Alt.theatre 13.3 and her 2-act play Heartlines premiered to sold-out audiences at Ottawa’s 2020 undercurrents festival. Sarah has been Artist-in-Residence at Great Canadian Theatre Company and at the National Arts Centre.

Acknowledgements:

This show was developed with the support of Ontario Arts Council; B Current; Ottawa Fringe; GCTC; undercurrents festival; SSHRC; City of Ottawa.