In 49th Day by athena kaitlin trinh, produced by Theatre ARTaud at the 2020 Next Stage Theatre Festival, a young woman (trinh) travels from Canada to Vietnam to fulfill the ritual requirements for her deceased grandmother (Diana Tso). The titular number of days refers to the length of time rice and offerings are brought to the altar for the dead.

Swearing up a storm and wrecking the ritual order, granddaughter is torn between a desire to honour her grandmother and to rage at her for her departure. She’s desperate to have one final, parting moment of connection with a woman and a culture both ever-present and distant to her. Highly specific yet universal, her story is a familiar one to many grandchildren of immigrants: she has Chinese and Vietnamese heritage, but admits her limited knowledge of those cultures’ languages and histories runs from rudimentary to almost non-existent, respectively.

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When the temporary technical battles of the very first show of the  2020 Next Stage Theatre Festival had been won,  Ophira Calof’s opening night of Literally Titanium presented us with another war: one waged between her own mind and body.

Troublesome DNA has left her with titanium in her spine to help hold her head up. She also uses a seriously cool power chair to transport her around the stage, making loops with vigour and grace.

Continue reading Literally Titanium (Ophira Calof) 2020 Next Stage Review →