Presenting the English-language premiere of
I’M NOT HERE
at the 2016 SummerWorks Performance Festival
Photo by Ron Diamond
Written by Marie-Claude Verdier
Translated by Alexis Diamond
Translation dramaturgy by Maureen Labonté
Directed by Jen Quinn
Set and Costume Design by Sabrina Miller
Sound Design/Composition by Stephanie Moore
Stage Managed/Lighting Design by Isabel Quintero Faia
Choreography by Nadia Verrucci
Co-produced by Stefanie Buxton
Performed by Shiong-En Chan, Alex Petrachuk, Nadia Verrucci
Produced by Composite Theatre Co., I’m Not Here will be presented as part of SummerWorks Performance Festival, August 4-14, 2016*. Founded in 1991, SummerWorks Performance Festival is Canada’s largest curated performance festival of theatre, dance, music, and live art.
Ariana, a pleasant young woman, tells us the story of her life in a torrent of words, describing a daily existence that’s unravelling, sinking and slipping inevitably towards the brutal and unpredictable unknown. Between her boss’ cupcake schedule and the distractions of her life as an urban singleton, Ariana loses her way and breaks down: a total implosion. Nothing’s ever over because nothing ever starts.
Composite Theatre Co. offers Marie-Claude Verdier’s universal tale of an identity deconstructing in language as an intimate conversation between performer and audience. In the intimacy of hub14, audience members are invited into the play space, into the very narrative, as engaged witnesses, in an attempt to bring the notion of “interactivity” full circle, back to the lone storyteller, back to where it all began.
Winner of Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal‘s 2013 Cole Foundation Translation Competition.
hub14, 14 Markham St., Toronto, ON
*I’m Not Here only runs from August 6-9.
Saturday, August 6 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 7 1:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 7 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 7 9:00 p.m.
Monday, August 8 6:30 p.m.
Monday, August 8 8:30 p.m.
Tuesday, August 9 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday, August 9 9:00 p.m.
Tickets FREE-$15, or save up to $30 with a 3-Show, 7-Show, or 10-Show Pass. Available online, over the phone (416-320-5779), or in person. Only 30 seats per show!
Cupcakes by ps by prettysweet will be served.
#eatmorecupcakes
#cupcakeplay
#SW16
#compositetheatreco
Production History
I’m Not Here, the English version of the one-woman show Je n’y suis plus, by Marie-Claude Verdier, earned Alexis Diamond the Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal‘s 2013 Cole Foundation Translation Competition award. The translation was completed under the tutelage of acclaimed Canadian translator and dramaturg Maureen Labonté, with the support of Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal, where, in the fall of 2014, it received a public reading with Stefanie Buxton.
Je n’y suis plus was directed and performed by Magali Lemèle in a co-production of the National Arts Centre’s French Theatre. It was co-presented in Ottawa-Gatineau during the festival Zones Théâtrales in September 2013.
I’m Not Here was showcased in November 2015 at the Voila Festival/The Cockpit Theatre, London, UK, in a production directed by Courtney Larkin, with Lindsey Huebner, Jenna Rose Thorne, Christine Leigh Milburn (all Canadians, living in the UK).
It then received a public reading at BoucheWHACKED’s Ta Gueule Workshop and Reading Series, Vancouver, B.C., May 22, 2016, directed by Heidi Taylor and performed by Melissa Oei.