THE UNPLUGGING Opens At Great Canadian Theatre Company, March 2

Yvette Nolan's The Unplugging comes to the GCTC stage from February 28 to March 12.

In a post apocalyptic future, two women venture into a frozen world after being exiled from their village. Relying on one another, they revive their Indigenous knowledge and traditions to survive the harsh winters and create a new community between the two of them. Everything's going well until a man shows up.

Directed by Katey Wattam, The Unplugging depicts a gentle remaking of the world into a more sustainable society. Wattam is a director, playwright, and community helper of mixed English, Irish, Franco-Ontarian, and Anishinaabe ancestry. Her work is grounded in a corporeal-based practice that draws on her own blood memory and ancestral knowledge to reclaim and decolonize bodies, minds, and spaces. She is an alum of McGill University, MAI Alliance Program, Black Theatre Workshop's Artist Mentorship Program, and Why Not Theatre's ThisGen Fellowship.

"In the face of the climate crisis and pandemic, going back to Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing is essential for building more sustainable, resilient, equitable, and culturally rich societies," says Wattam. "The characters in this play offer a poignant and inspiring reflection on the human experience, and the resilience and ingenuity that people are capable of in the face of adversity, making it a timely and relevant story."

Yvette Nolan is an accomplished playwright whose plays include BLADE, Job's Wife, Annie Mae's Movement, and The Birds (a modern adaptation of Aristophanes' comedy). Nolan, born in Saskatchewan to an Algonquin mother and an Irish immigrant father, is also the author of Medicine Shows: Indigenous Performance Culture (Playwrights Canada Press, 2015). Nolan will be at the GCTC later this spring, directing The First Stone by Donna-Michelle St Bernard, a co-production between GCTC and New Harlem productions.

The show will run for two weeks at GCTC's Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre.