Liz

What if utopia means care for women’s bodies?

Liz tells the story of an elderly woman living in a low-income housing complex who believes she can hear the sung voice of God, which she calls The Signal, in her apartment building. Liz believes that if she fasts, following a specific regime with self-discipline and sacrifice, she will find a hidden object in her apartment that will unlock coordinates to a large home from her vision; a space where she can build a utopic eco-commune for herself and for the women living in her building.

When Sophia, a compassionate cleaner hired to address complaints about a smell coming from Liz’s apartment, shows up, Liz allows herself to be cared for, revealing hard truths amidst the once active denial of her past. Throughout the piece, The Mechanic, an opera singer, is caretaking for a large obstructed object that she is charged with revealing and pushing into the space. Will this object unlock the coordinates to utopia?

Liz is a poetic performance score that hybridizes classical voice, poetry, theatre and contemporary digital design and visual art to explore the impact of the Canadian housing crisis on marginalized women, the impact of isolation on mental health, and the possibility of a utopia of mutual aid and care for women’s bodies. The work uses poetry based off of data from the Canadian Natural Disaster Database to explore the link between capitalism’s impact on reproductive and climate justice.

Liz was a part of the Imago Theatre Creators’ Circle and was selected for the 2024 Banff Playwrights’ Lab. The first reading of Liz featured: Amanda Cordoner, Meghan Lindsay (soprano), and Erin Shields.