The Café Digital
Now available online through The Cultch and RE/PLAY, The Café is an invitation to be a voyeur; to eavesdrop on private conversations in public; to witness intimate relationships up close and personal. Seven scenes created by nine playwrights of various ethnicities, ages, beliefs, sexual orientations and gender identities. With content performed in various languages, The Café is a day-in-the-life exploration of the cultural mosaic of a Vancouver coffee shop.
Audiences are encouraged to sit at or near one of seven ‘performance tables’ and watch a play unfold mere inches away from them. Audience members are free to stay with one table and watch a scene to its conclusion or wander around the virtual coffee shop and experience other scenes- a narrative choose-your-own-adventure. The Café seeks to blur the line between art and reality by decreasing the proximity between actors and audience, welcoming them into a story- a conversation, an experience, a life- that may be at once completely familiar and totally foreign.
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels
Hosted by the Cultch and RE/PLAY
A co-production with ITSAZOO Productions
Performed at: Online
A digital theatre experience from ITSAZOO Productions and Aphotic Theatre.
Original Concept by Fay Nass.
Created with support from the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.
The Stories:
Mango Cake
by Amy Lee Lavoie & Omari Newton
A mixed-race couple suddenly faces the underlying racial tension in their marriage.
Father’s Day
by Sebastien Archibald
An elderly francophone man struggles to reconcile with his anglophone son after a 25-year absence.
50 Cent Lemonade
by Kelsey Kanatan Wavey
An Indigenous woman guides her autistic brother through a tumultuous relationship.
Submission
by Fay Nass & Diana Garcia
In a case of mistaken identity, two women anciently “interview” each other for the wrong (or right?) reasons.
Space Aliens and Tropical Ducks
by Derek Chan
A single parent attempts to reconnect with their depressive ex-partner.
Anna’s Story
by Manami Hara
Two best friends console each other in the face of a strained marriage and a family crisis.
Przyjaciółki
by Anais West
A Polish woman struggles to appease her Canadian partner after divulging an uncomfortable secret.
Creative Team
Concept: Fay Nass
Direction: Fay Nass & Chelsea Haberlin
Dramaturgy: Fay Nass & Sebastien Archibald
Stage Management: Jenny Kim
Production Management: Paige Louter
Associate Producer: Claire Love Wilson
Costumes: Donnie Tejani
Props: Ariel Slack
Cast
Meghan Hemingway (Mango Cake)
Kwasi Thomas (Mango Cake)
Joey Lespérance (Father’s Day)
Ben Elliott (Father’s Day)
Chelsea Rose (50 Cent Lemonade)
Frankie Cottrell (50 Cent Lemonade)
Montserrat Videla Samper (Submission)
Jaqueline Korb (Submission)
Melissa Oei (Space Aliens and Tropical Ducks)
Alison Ward (Space Aliens and Tropical Ducks)
Genevieve Fleming (Anna’s Story)
Yumi Ogawa (Anna’s Story)
Paloma Kwiatkowski (Przyjaciółki)
Claire Love Wilson (Przyjaciółki)