André Alexis Creates a Pandemic-Inspired Audio Drama Trilogy

The series is launching on August 17 with new episodes added on August 24 and 31.

By: Aug. 06, 2020
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Internationally acclaimed, multiple award-winning Toronto novelist André Alexis has teamed up with local experimental theatre company Volcano to create a new audio drama Metamorphosis: a Viral Trilogy. Launching on August 17 with new episodes added on August 24 and 31, the series is a co-presentation between TO Live, SummerWorks, and Canadian Stage.

Created in collaboration with Volcano's founding Artistic Director Ross Manson, sound designer Debashis Sinha, and a trio of acclaimed Canadian actors - Bahia Watson, Becky Johnson and Diana Leblanc - Metamorphosis charts the progress of a fictional global pandemic in Canada's largest city through three fictional diaries. These audio-journals - from a 13-year old girl (Lucretia); a 30-year-old woman (Kerri); and an 86-year old senior (Nella) - are funny, intimate, and often fantastical.

The first episode, Lucretia in Quarantine, centres on a 13-year-old caring for a 7-year-old sister who, in the absence of parents, has decided to adopt a baby racoon. Lucretia's diary beautifully explores loneliness, love and family in a time of extremity. Lucretia in Quarantine launches on August 17 at www.tolive.com/metamorphosis.

In the second installment, Kerri Wonders, a 30-year-old woman takes a pill in a moment of abandon after years in quarantine. Kerri's diary chronicles how the pill transforms her life in a post-pandemic world. Kerri Wonders launches on August 24 at http://summerworks.ca/programming.

The final episode of the series, Nella at 86, follows an octogenarian in a long-term care home at the start of a global pandemic. Her diary is a clear-sighted account from someone who is no stranger to loss. Nella at 86 launches on August 31 at https://csgrid.canadianstage.com/metamorphosis.

Metamorphosis marks André Alexis' third collaboration with Volcano, their first dating back to 1995 when Ross Manson directed Alexis' Lambton Kent leading to Volcano's debut on the international theatre scene. "André Alexis is one of the most thoughtful and original writers Canada has produced in my lifetime. In Metamorphosis, he turns his astonishing talent, wisdom and depth of feeling to charting a new human path through a global upheaval. It's funny, moving and enlightening work," says Manson.

Of the trilogy's genesis, Alexis writes, "All of this came about as a game played during a pandemic. My partner's daughter, Lea, and I were thinking about a way to keep busy. As Lea is sometimes an actor and I'm often a writer, I decided to write a monologue for her using as a guide my idea of what her "feral self" might be like. And so, Lucretia was born. From Lucretia and her predicament, the two other monologues came, monologues that were also explorations of personae of people I know: specifically of my mother (Nella) and of one of my closest friends (Kerri). Though I admit it's odd to imagine people you care for in distress, there is something resonant and strangely comforting in accompanying them through catastrophe."

The three diaries each run approximately 35 minutes. For the full impact of the sound and music, they are best listened to through headphones. Transcriptions for Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences will also be available.



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