HEARTLINES at GCTC Depicts Art and Love in Defiance of World War

Heartlines at GCTC depicts art and love in defiance of world war. A story of queer love in a time of fascism, GCTC's 2021-22 Season continues with Heartlines by Sarah Waisvisz, the second production in the TACTICS Mainstage Series.

The show is fronted by an entirely Ottawa-based cast of Margo MacDonald (The Elephant Girls) and Maryse Fernandes (A Company of Fools) and runs from March 22 - April 3, 2022. The show is directed by Rebecca Benson, TACTICS Co-Artistic Producer.

Accompanied by live music performed by Scottie Irving of The Peptides, the show is about two French surrealist and avant-garde artists, Lucy Schwob (a.k.a. Claude Cahun) (MacDonald) and Suzanne Malherbe (a.k.a. Marcel Moore) (Fernandes), whose love for one another is as strong as their resistance to Nazi encroachment during the occupation of Jersey, the Channel Island they called home during World War Two.

"People at marginal intersections are frequently the greatest resistors since the violence of the status quo is not built to support them," says GCTC Artistic Director Sarah Kitz. "Cahun and Moore were leaders in how to change the world, how to love against fear, how to resist oppression while living with joy."

Ottawa playwright Sarah Waisvisz developed an early version of Heartlines while she was Playwright in Residence at GCTC and later at the National Arts Centre. The play was initially conceived as part of a playwriting challenge between Waisvisz and two other local playwrights to write a play about a gay person whose story had been erased from history.

"There were so many inconsistencies, tensions, and lacunae in the written history of Claude and Suzanne," says Waisvisz. "I decided to try to write within the gaps; Heartlines is an attempt to undo erasure of many kinds."

An earlier draft of Heartlines was a part of the Undercurrents festival in 2020, where it received universal acclaim from audiences and critics alike. Since then the play has grown into a full-scale production benefitting from rewrites, workshops, further development of the story and resources from TACTICS and GCTC. Now, it's headed for the GCTC stage as the second play in the 2022 TACTICS Mainstage Series, presented in association with GCTC.

Tickets for Heartlines are available at the following Pick-Your-Price options: $15, $25, $40, and $55. GCTC's mainstage theatre will operate at 50% of capacity and proof of vaccination will be required on entry.

Heartlines is supported by funds from Canadian Heritage, Ontario Arts Council, City of Ottawa and Canada Council for the Arts.

Thursday, March 24, curtain at 8pm at GCTC (1233 Wellington St W.). Space is limited. If you would like to be added to the list of attendees, please contact Jared at the email below.

As part of GCTC's effort to make theatre accessible to all members of the community, the 2021-22 season will feature a new model for single tickets. Audiences will be able to pick their price with single tickets at the following prices: $15, $25, $40, $55. All tickets will provide the same experience. Audiences are encouraged to pick the ticket price that makes the most sense for them.

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