Cast & Creative Team Set For LAST LANDSCAPE at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

Adam Paolozza, Artistic Director of Dora Award-winning theatre company Bad New Days, today announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere of Last Landscape, in partnership with Common Boots Theatre, on stage at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre from January 12 to 26, 2025.

In a sometime somewhere devoid of nature, posthuman 'workers' enter an empty space and assemble a series of artificial landscapes out of found objects, striving with their bodies to recreate the natural world from memory. But is it the deep past we see, or some genetically modified future?

The world premiere of Last Landscape blends Bad New Days' signature brand of physical theatre with an eco-dramaturgical, DIY aesthetic to create a slowly transforming, imagistic meditation on extinction, ecological grief and interspecies care, where colossal puppets of prehistoric megafauna roam free. On the brink of environmental collapse, Last Landscape offers hopeful possibilities for how we might share this big green miraclemarble.

Last Landscape will be performed by Nada Abusaleh, Nicholas Eddie, Gibum Dante Lim, Annie Luján, Adam Paolozza, and Kari Pederson. SlowPitchSound will provide both original music and live turntablism.

The creative team includes set designer Ken MacKenzie, lighting design by André du Toit, and the work of scenic marionette designer Roxanne Ignatius, with original puppets created by Graeme Black Robinson, Clelia Scala, and Puppetmongers Theatre. The show's creative producer is Victor Pokinko. Adam Paolozza conceived the piece and will direct. Ian Garrett is the production's eco-dramaturgical consultant.

Last Landscape prioritises sustainability in every stage of its creation-from the artistic vision to the materials used in production. Because of its eco-dramaturgical ethos, Last Landscape was recently awarded the prestigious Ray Ferris Innovation and Sustainability Grant from the Ontario Arts Foundation and the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts.

Eco-dramaturgy asks theatre makers to find alternative forms of storytelling that embody climate change rather than merely speaking about it. This sustainable approach attracted Common Boots Theatre to the project as a partner, sharing with Bad New Days a passion for creating sustainable art that fosters environmental awareness to inspire meaningful change.

Last Landscape imagines a future where we find alternative ways to reconnect with and remember nature, embodying storytelling centred in care over conflict.

The production runs from January 12 to 26 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander St. Toronto). Opening night is January 14 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available here and prices start at $13; additional taxes and box office fees will apply.

"Last Landscape grew out of a period of long walks in nature during the pandemic, where I questioned how my artistic practice could more closely align with my ethical principles," shared Paolozza. "I wondered how live theatre could uniquely engage with the pressing issues of our times. I looked around me and asked: How can we remember nature once it's gone? How can we tell stories that shift the focus away from the human experience? And what does sustainability really mean in the context of performance-not just achieving carbon neutrality, but fostering an audience experience that restores rather than agitates the nervous system?"

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