Utopia or dystopia? A new play is coming to Belco Arts Centre

Posted on 18 October, 2022

Would you choose to live in a world without pain?

Rebus Theatre is taking to the stage with its talented cast of disabled actors, and actors with lived experience of mental ill health as they journey through the stars on a humorous and heart-warming odyssey.

Utopiate follows the cast on an intergalactic mission to escape the pain and suffering found on Earth, inviting audiences to join them in questioning if this world without pain is as attractive as it sounds and if we can truly experience growth and love without adversity.

It’s been a show seven months in the making and with final rehearsals taking place, everything is slotting into place.

“We had this really brilliant rehearsal the other day where we worked out how to weave the last little bits of narrative threads together that were a dangling loose, which of course meant everyone was super psyched,” Assistant Director, Melissa Gryglewski said.

The cast explores social issues through metaphor and often shares their own lived experiences through their creative expression.

“There’s a lot of threads of ableism and well-meaning ableism and things like that sewn through there as well but all done in this sci-fi intergalactic odyssey.  It’s a really beautiful and extremely fun process to take these things that are difficult topic to experience and to talk about and to find a way to address them,” Creative Producer, Ben Drysdale said.

“By taking these somewhat difficult topics and putting them into a fantasy world it is perhaps more palatable for the audience to look at it and walk away and go ‘that moves me in these, and I think about things differently in these ways because of it’. I feel like when you’re dealing with difficult topics it’s really easy for audience members to get defensive,” Ben said.

Utopiate is a way to bring these discussions into the limelight and also helps to make you take a step back and view the world through some not some rose-tinted lenses.

“The world can be a very disabling place and so we often have these conversations whether we’re someone with autism or chronic pain, a person with an intellectual disability or not. These are the themes that we digest together as a thinking community, as well as a feeling community and a creative community,” Melissa said.

The cast whilst being busy learning lines and choreography have also put their skills to the test creating soundscapes and other elements to amalgamate into an audio-visual feast blending dialogue with physical theatre, soundscapes both live and recorded with audio-visual design. However, it is not just their acting chops that are being developed over the course of creating this theatrical masterpiece.

“It’s also important to note that like all these theatre techniques and theatre skills that we’re using, they don’t only help people who might have professional ambitions, but they’re also really useful for just everyday life. They help with building confidence, building leadership skills, and finding your own creative voice,” Associate artist, Sammy Moynihan said.

For cast member Leanne Shutt—who was only diagnosed with autism last year—it has been an incredibly healing journey using her creativity throughout this process.

“It’s been very empowering and growthful for me and that’s been a really good part of the journey. It definitely helps people find their voice and feel stronger and more included in the community rather than an outcast,” Leanne said.

Book your tickets here to come along for an out-of-this-world experience.

Feature image courtesy of Andrew Sikorski.