ITSAZOO and Aphotic Theatre to Present World Premiere of THE CAFE

ITSAZOO, in partnership with Aphotic Theatre, and co-presented with the PuSh Festival, will present the world premiere of The Café from January 25 - February 5, 2022 at 6pm (Monday-Saturday) and 8pm (Friday & Saturday) at Kafka's (577 Great Northern Way). Directed by project creator Fay Nass and Chelsea Haberlin, the site-specific, immersive theatrical work is a day-in-the-life exploration of the cultural mosaic of a Vancouver coffee shop, welcoming audience members to bear witness to the private conversations and experiences of seven unique pairings. Featuring multilingual vignette performances created by nine diverse playwrights, The Café offers a window into the vulnerability and complexity of intimate human connection.

"The Café blurs the lines between art and reality by eliminating the fourth wall between actors and audience entirely, and welcoming them to eavesdrop on private interactions that may be at once completely familiar and totally foreign," says Sebastian Archibald, Artistic Producer of ITSAZOO and The Café playwright. "Representing a wide range of plausible interactions and conversations between people in a café - touching on themes of loneliness, racism, depression, marital tension, sexual identity, illness and more - The Café showcases a diversity of cultures and narratives that allows us to experience other perspectives through the richness of storytelling."

Adds Nass, Artistic Director of Aphotic Theatre: "We are immensely grateful to have partnered with a team of some of the finest local playwrights, of various ethnicities, ages, beliefs, sexual orientations, and gender identities, to provide a vital platform to share the stories that they wanted to tell. Our goal is to shine a light on the vast spectrum of potent narratives - especially those not often heard - to educate and enrich our lives as individuals and as a collective society."

The Café centres on seven diverse stories expressed through pairs: an elderly francophone struggling to reconcile with his anglophone son after a 25-year absence; a mixed-race couple suddenly faced with the underlying racial tension in their marriage; a case of mistaken identity between an art gallery owner searching for a new BDSM partner and a Spanish woman looking for a job; an Indigenous woman guiding her autistic brother through a tumultuous relationship; a single parent attempting to reconnect with their depressive ex-partner; two upper-middle-class moms consoling each other in the face of a strained marriage and a cancer diagnosis; and a Polish woman who, after divulging a secret part of her life, tries to appease her non-binary Canadian partner and repair the cultural rift between them.

Full of warmth and vulnerability, The Café offers moments of both levity and heartbreak, drawing audiences into the nuances of intimate, emotionally honest interactions between family, friends, and strangers alike. An authentic representation of Vancouver's diverse cultural makeup, the work features multilingual conversations, including characters conversing in French, Spanish, Polish and Japanese, drawing viewers into the lives of others not just through words, but through body language, facial expressions, and raw emotion.

Intimately sized audiences of 30 people per performance are encouraged to sit at or near one of seven "performance tables" and watch a play unfold mere inches away from them. Structured as a narrative "choose-your-own-adventure," audiences can decide to watch a scene reach its conclusion or they can wander around the coffee shop throughout the 75-minute theatrical experience, absorbing fragments of various conversations. Scenes will repeat throughout the evening performance, allowing audience members to witness all seven performances in the order of their own choosing. Coffee, tea, and baked goods will be available for purchase throughout the show.

The seven scenes are written by nine local playwrights: Sebastien Archibald (Father's Day), Amy Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton (Mango Cake), Fay Nass and Diana Garcia (Submission), Kelsey Kanatan Wavey (50 Cent Lemonade), Derek Chan (Space Aliens and Tropical Ducks), Manami Hara (Anna's Story) and Anais West (Przyjaciółki).

The cast includes Joey Lespérance and Mike Gill (Father's Day), Meghan Hemingway (Mango Cake) Jacqueline Korb and Alexandra Lainfiesta (Submission), Chelsea Rose and Raes Calvert (50 Cent Lemonade), khattieQ and Melissa Oei (Space Aliens and Tropical Ducks), Genevieve Fleming and Yumi Ogawa (Anna's Story), and Julia Siedlanowska and Claire Love Wilson (Przyjaciółki).

Props designed by Carol MacDonald and costumes by Donnie Tejani.

Tickets and information at itsazoo.org and pushfestival.ca

To post a comment, you must register and login.