Laura and Samara spend their days as non-profit unicorns and fill every spare minute exploring the world of musical theatre as BFFs (that’s Broadway Friends Forever). Follow @bffs613 on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
TACTICS presents Shorelines as part of its MainStage Series—written by local Ottawa artist and award-winning playwright Mishka Lavigne, directed by Nicholas Leno, and curated by Micah Jondel DeShazer—from May 2 to 13 at the University of Ottawa’s LabO. A story about climate change, climate inequities, friendship, and family, Shorelines is a play where memories of the past and the urgency of the present collide. The BFFs sat to interview Mishka and learn more about this mainstage world premiere.
Apt613: What is Shorelines about? What inspired you to create this story?
Mishka Lavigne: Shorelines is a play about climate change but also climate inequities, how vulnerable communities all across the world feel the impacts of climate change more deeply than others. It takes place in a near future, in a town that is never named but that could be anywhere. One of the inspirations comes from a news article published around 2016, about the first American climate change refugees: the residents of Isle Jean-Charles in Louisiana, who were all being evacuated to the mainland because rising waters in the Gulf of Mexico were overtaking the island. The Louisiana government couldn’t keep residents of the island safe. This is happening all over the world now and will continue to happen more and more.
Climate change is a gigantic issue with countless ramifications—political, social, etc. But my theatre focuses on intimate spaces, using the intimate to speak about the collective, to speak to the collective. I wanted to talk about climate change and climate inequities, but I’m doing it through the lens of a family trying to survive. Through the lens of ordinary lives. Shorelines speaks to the power of family and community, even in the direst circumstances. It uses the intimate sphere of family to speak to the collective. It forces us to see how everything is interconnected, how the environment is not separate from those who inhabit it and from those who are in power. But in this world, hope can also lie in community. Shorelines also brings forth the idea that everything is connected.
What has it been like to bring this story to life since the 20-minute excerpt included at the undercurrents Festival in 2017?
I’m so excited for Ottawa audiences to see this play. Its development history is deeply rooted in this city: from the first 20-minute reading at Undercurrents in 2017 to two years of development as playwright-in-residence with Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Theatre and a development workshop presented at GCTC in 2019 with HHG Theatre.
The fact that TACTICS, who produced my first play written in English (Albumen in 2019), was also interested in picking up this project makes me really happy. Director Nicholas Leno and I assembled an all-Ottawa team of artists for this project. We really think that this production will make Ottawa proud, especially after the arduous last few years.
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The plot follows a non-linear storyline. How do you think this impacts the way the audience experiences the play?
To me, with Shorelines, the non-linear story creates a sense of things being overwhelming. Scenes are sometimes more realistic, sometimes more poetic, and sometimes nightmarish. It leaves space for the audience to feel, to be immersed, and this is something that’s important to me as a playwright and as an artist.
Your previous work has been highly awarded and also beloved by audiences. What similarities and new experiences might audiences have with Shorelines?
Like many of my other plays, Shorelines uses the intimate sphere to speak to something bigger. The intimacy created with the play, with these characters, with the language can be immersive for the audience, can speak closer to their heart. I also think resiliency, some form of hope, the power of community, of family, of love, are themes that are important in my work. The world of Shorelines can seem bleak, but there are moments of light, cracks for the light to shine through.
What do you want audiences to take away from this production?
To me, this is not a political play per se, not a call to action, but it can be in the sense that everything is political. In a larger sense, everything is social. We live in communities. We live in society. We’re not going to make it through alone.
Shorelines partakes from May 2–13 at LabO. Evening performances are at 8pm except Sunday at 7:30pm. Matinees are Saturday at 2pm and Sunday at 1:30pm. The show runs for 90 minutes. Tickets start at $17.31. To make theatre more accessible, a designated number of tickets will be sold at a discounted rate. This initiative is directed mainly toward students and young people. LabO is located inside the Ottawa Art Gallery complex, which is fully accessible.
