A new work of theatre experimenting with the separation of the AURAL and VISUAL, like a radio-play paired with a silent film.

In 20XX, a security specialist named Kawabi wants what everyone wants: to leave behind the scars of sickness, hunger, and war… and lead a new life in a new body. She joins The Grove, an idealistic start-up with a fleet of bioengineered and shareable bodies. But when a hostile entity hacks The Grove’s network, colonizing the minds and bodies of its inhabitants, Kawabi must rescue her new home…by reckoning with a ghost of the past.

K BODY AND MIND is like a science-fiction blockbuster where you never see the action…an austere and mesmerizing work of science-fiction, evoking maximalist anime and cyberpunk aesthetics, delivered in a spooky and robotic minimalist style. The core formal experiment is the dissociation of sound and visuals, like a lush radio-play overlaid on a jittery silent film. The show constantly struggles to calibrate its different tracks: its cold lights to its warm cinematic sound, vividly voiced characters to robotically choreographed bodies, and even filmed sequences on a big screen coming in and out of sync with live performers on stage. As the viewer pieces these tracks together, the real show starts to emerge: the sci-fi action movie that plays inside your own head…

Learn more at kbodyandmind.com.

CREDITS

Lead Artist, Director, Writer: Conor Wylie

Performers: Jasmine Chen and Donna Soares

Performing Sound Designer, Composer: Nancy Tam

Performing Lighting and Projection Designer, Technical Director: Daniel O’Shea

Choreographer, Movement Collaborator: Mahaila Patterson-O’Brien

Co-creator and understudy: Anjela Magpantay (performer in 2022 production)

Story + Accessibility Collaborator: Amy Amantea

Costume Designer: Leah Weinstein

ADDITIONAL FILM COLLABORATORS

Producing Stage Manager: Anjela Magpantay

Lead Filmmaker, Film Editor: Daniel O’Shea

Sound Editor: Nancy Tam

Sound Consultant: Ira Jordison

Sound Mixers: Ira Jordison and Nancy Tam

Script Coordinator: Mahaila Patterson-O’Brien

Script Consultant: Shawn Macdonald

Camera Operators: Lukáš Hyrman, Luc Forsyth, Thomas Chiasson

Catering: Narong Heng