Arts & Culture

“WE’VE ALL BEEN been wrestling with a lot right now.” So begins the curatorial statement of the 34th SummerWorks Performance Festival, running Aug. 1 to 11 at venues across Toronto. That undeniable sentiment gestures toward the theme anchoring this year’s lineup of over 40 artistic offerings: survival.

By situating public art next to full-scale theatrical productions and development workshops next to conversations, the festival aims to survey how a diverse range of artists are dealing with the chaos of our present moment, from climate change to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

As usual, the programming thrums with vitality and irreverence, seeming to offer its own road map to survival — one involving dialogue, community and sci-fi plays about psychic slugs.

Here are six events to check out.

1. Girl’s Notes III

A product of SummerWorks’s recent focus on international development, this brief, movement-based creation from Taiwan’s Kua-bo Dance Theater unpacks creator and performer Su Pin-Wen’s pandemic experience, exploring the ways in which women perform gender when they’re isolated from the public gaze. Co-presented by Toronto’s own Why Not Theatre.

Girl’s Notes III plays The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance on Thurs., Aug. 1 at 7 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 3 at 3:30 p.m. and Sun., Aug. 4 at 6:45 p.m. Pay-what-you-decide from $15.

2. Homebuddies

Part of the festival’s free “public works” series, this devised co-production between So.Glad Arts and It’s Not A Box Theatre unfolds at Lisgar Park near Queen West one day and Evergreen Brick Works the next. An interactive response to the statistic that in Canada there are five empty homes for every unhoused person, the performance involves a roving collection of anthropomorphized houses on the hunt for a neighbourhood to conquer.

Homebuddies plays at Lisgar Park on Fri., Aug. 9 at 6:30 p.m. and at Evergreen Brick Works on Sat., Aug. 10 at 11 a.m. Attendance is free.

3. It’s a Shame

 Co-created by director Lucy Coren and performer Nevaeh May, this immersive show has a killer hook: although audiences attend in person, the action takes place on OnlyFans. The 45-minute production uses its site-specific digital setting to offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the complex realities of being a sex worker.

It’s a Shame plays at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace on Sat., Aug. 10 at 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., as well as on Sun., Aug. 11 at 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. Pay-what-you-decide        from $15.

4. Summer Break

Nestled in the festival’s middle, this one-day slate of free programming responds to our overstuffed cultural moment (and the intense pace of summer theatre festivals) by featuring activities centred around slowing down, including E+ARTxH2, an existential conversation with Elder Duke Redbird; Neighbourhood Rest Stop, a participatory, relaxation-based event in St. Andrew’s Playground Park and more.

SummerWorks’s Summer Break occurs on Mon., Aug. 5. Attendance is free.

5. The Movements

 This full-scale production by writer-director Alex McLean describes itself as “a high-octane theatre/dance spectacular.” Consisting of a complexly choreographed workout routine, it uses a soaring musical score (by Stewart Legere) and multi-layered video design (by Christian Ludwig Hansen) to capture the economy’s tendency to overwhelm. (In a keen programming move, it’s not the only show that links physical exhaustion with capitalism: Mykalle Bielinski’s Warm up, set on a spinning bike, takes a similar approach. Both are co-presented with The Theatre Centre.)

The Movements plays at The Theatre Centre’s Franco Boni Theatre on Wed., Aug. 7 at 8 p.m.; Thurs., Aug. 8 at 8 p.m. and Fri., Aug. 9 at 5 p.m. Pay-what-you-decide from $15.

6. Versus

 The Toronto Fringe Festival left me thinking that 2024 might be the year of clown. Versus, co-created by performer Adam Lazarus and a large team of notable Canadian theatre artists, seems poised to bolster that notion. The Bouffon-inspired performance centres Gerald Bloom, a man overcommitted, overworked, undervalued, overstimulated and undernourished. Sound familiar?

Versus plays at The Theatre Centre’s Franco Boni Theatre on Fri., Aug. 9 at 9 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 10 at 6 p.m. and Sun., Aug. 11 at 4 p.m. Pay-what-you-decide from $15.