A road trip to self-discovery
After losing her husband, Dorothy learns that life is too short to delay your aspirations. She decides to take their RV on the road trip of his retirement dreams: she’s going to Burning Man. After all, it’s only a 21-hour drive to a weeklong culture festival and party with no plumbing in the middle of a desert—how hard can it be? Burning Mom is a stirring tale of one woman’s odyssey of self-discovery, and how art, everlasting roads, and human connection propel her along the way.
Based on the experiences of playwright Mieko Ouchi’s mother, Dorothy Ouchi, this irreverent one-woman play takes us on a voyage through the process of grief and the search for meaning and onto the madcap playa of the world’s largest free-form creative gathering in Black Rock City, Nevada. Prepare to laugh and cry as Dorothy’s story invites you to take risks and enjoy the small moments in life.
Tickets
The Arts Club offers $25 tickets for any seat in the house to patrons with a CNIB card or an Access 2 card. Price includes a free companion. Please call the Arts Club Box office to purchase, 604-687-1644, and be sure to mention VocalEye, or purchase online
Written by Mieko Ouchi
Reviews
“One of the most heartbreaking and original plays I’ve read in a very long time. Ouchi is one of Canada’s finest writers and her virtuosity is on full display here.”– David Yee, author of carried away on the crest of a wave and Artistic Director of fu-GEN Theatre
“This is one of the most uplifting plays I’ve come across. Funny, smart, and heartbreakingly honest, the play is about loss, about the kind of grief that can swallow you whole, about the fear you will never be able to face life again, but ultimately it’s about reinvention and courage. And the incredible thing is IT’S ALL TRUE! Dorothy Ouchi is a role model for us all.”– Kelly Thornton, Artistic Director of the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre
“Burning Mom shows why Mieko Ouchi is one of Canada’s best playwrights. A hilarious, touching roller-coaster ride through grief, joy, and all the hills, drops, and turns in between.”– Vern Thiessen, Governor General’s Literary Award–winning author of Einstein’s Gift and Bluebirds
Resources
Burning Man is a week-long large-scale desert event focused on “community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance” held annually in the western United States. The event’s name comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred to as the Man, that occurs on the penultimate night, the Saturday evening before Labor Day. Since 1991, the event has been at Black Rock City in northwestern Nevada, a temporary city erected in the Black Rock Desert about 100 miles (160 km) north-northeast of Reno. According to Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey in 2004, the event is guided by ten stated principles: radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy. [read more]
