Days before Christmas, Evan Chaulk returns to his childhood home in Newfoundland to spend the holidays with his mother, Nancy, a widow and elementary school teacher. Arriving ahead of his wife, in time for his mother’s hastily planned retirement party, Evan, a wheelchair-user, finds himself confronted with the truth of his mother’s progressing Alzheimer’s and its effects on her life. Amidst tree decorating and mother-son squabbles, Nancy struggles against the diagnosis, determined to maintain her independence as the escalating symptoms of her condition foretell of the road ahead – an uncertain future Nancy and Evan must learn how to face together.
At once funny, intimate, and unsettling, Lights is a portrait of a tightly-knit family facing profound life changes and what remains when a lifetime of memories begins to fade away.
This Touchstone Theatre production was filmed with a live audience and is audio described by Eileen Barrett for VocalEye.
Host Amy Amantea will be joined by actor/playwright Adam Grant Warren, his co-star Susinn McFarlen and director Roy Surette.
“A mind-expanding script tightly produced with beautifully modulated rhythms and three very strong performances.” –Vancouver Plays
The VocalEye virtual lobby opens at 6:30 pm Pacific Time for some socializing and community updates with host Amy Amantea. The pre-show introduction will begin at 6:45 pm with Amy and guests. The featured show begins at 7 pm followed by conversation, Q and A and a prize draw.
If you’ve never attended a VocalEye Almost Live Zoom event before, you can register for just one event or sign up for the full season. A Zoom link and reminder will be sent to you on the day of the event. Almost Live events are designed for people with sight loss, but everyone is welcome.
Register here or call 604-364-5949
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Originally from Newfoundland, Adam began his career as a radio columnist for the CBC Morning Show, at which time he also became Newfoundland’s youngest winner of both the Arts and Letters Award for Fiction, and the George Story Medal of Excellence in the Arts. A graduate and teacher at Vancouver Film school, his films have screened as official selections at California’s Newport Beach Film Festival, the National Screen Institute’s Online All-Star Reel, and the Vancouver International Film Festival – where his film Float took home the honours for Best Canadian Short. Conocerlos (Get to Know Them) earned him his first BC Film Leo Award Nomination for Best Screenwriting.
Adam is a frequent collaborator with Vancouver’s All Bodies Dance Project. He has appeared in stage productions of Frank Theatre’s All In, Realwheels Theatre’s CREEPS, and Touchstone’s Kill Me Now — the latter two earning him Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards. Following development as part of the National Writers’ Colony at Vancouver’s Playwrights’ Theatre Centre, his solo show, Last Train In, premiered at Victoria’s UNOFest, and went on to critical acclaim at Vancouver’s rEvolver Theatre Festival. In addition to Lights, he has a new project in early development with Boca Del Lupo’s SLaM program. With generous support from both the BCAC and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, he’s also currently pursuing a Master’s in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.
“The idea came from the fact that I live across the country from my parents,” said Adam Grant Warren. “I’m getting older and they’re getting older. Neither of them have Alzheimer’s but it is in my family. I started to wonder what the future might look like if something like this were to happen.” Read more in this preview article in the Vancouver Sun.
