The Segal Centre For Performing Arts Presents A Reading Of BEHAVIOUR, A Playwrights' Workshop Montreal Production

Playwrights' Workshop Montréal and the Segal Centre for Performing Arts has announced the theatrical reading of Behaviour, an exploration of gender, power, labour, and abuse. Written by Darrah Teitel and directed by Emma Tibaldo, Behaviour will be read on-site at the Segal Centre, and live-streamed three times, on March 20th and 21th, 2021.

Behaviour is the story of Mara, a woman who seems to be living her dream: she has a career in politics where she is making a difference, and she's in love with an artist who challenges norms. But what lurks underneath is devastating. With humour, precision, and unrelenting honesty, Behaviour probes at what we accept as normal. The play challenges our acceptance of existing structures, exploring the interplay between power and abuse. Behaviour reflects the world as we experience it, where speaking out against sexual abuse is the abnormal act.

Theatre critic Kelly Nestruck (The Globe and Mail) called Behaviour "one of the smartest plays to respond to the #MeToo movement", while Ryan Pepper (Capital Critics Circle) named it "one of the most important, powerful, traumatizing, and simply essential plays happening right now." This play comes at a time when dismantling gender and labour hierarchies has never been more important.

Teitel has set her play on the Hill, where workers are particularly vulnerable to power imbalances. Behaviour shouts out against the normalized silence against abuse, to the point that Teitel says, "what is abnormal is speaking out against it." This reading, then, is an attempt to say out loud what usually remains unspoken.

This reading of Behaviour will feature Amelia Sargisson in the role of Mara, Victor Andres Trelles Turgeon as Evan, Erin Shields as Jordan, and Felicia Shulman as Lydia, iTrance, and Police. Teitel and Tibaldo are joined by a creative team that includes Production Designer Emily Soussana, Stage Manager Luciana Burcheri, Digital Dramaturg collective potatoCakes_digital. Emma Tibaldo is also the play's dramaturg. The play premiered at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in collaboration with SpiderWebShow. Behaviour was developed in collaboration with Playwrights' Workshop Montréal through a variety of programs, including the Gros Morne Playwrights' Residency.

For the most up-to-date information, follow the Segal Centre on social media or visit www.segalcentre.org.

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