Toronto’s fu-GEN theatre company may have had their plans for a major festival performance in May scuttled by COVID-19, but they managed to pivot nimbly and adapt to the new circumstances by readying an experimental new online theatre piece. 

Online Joy Edit is a series of intimate one-on-one interactions taking place online over various communications channels. It premiered on April 2 and continues today and tomorrow. 

Most interactions will happen over the video conferencing app Zoom. 

Options for the one-on-one performances include everything from a mad scientist constructing a joy machine and a dance journey to dramatic candlelight readings to a duet with a 12-year-old from the past to the tune of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Surprisingly, it’s something that was already in the works for next season. 

“The oddly prescient thing is that we’ve actually had this on the books for a while, and we were supposed to do it next season,” says artistic director David Yee. “When the stay home measures started going into effect, we decided to get an early start.” 

As Yee explains, fu-GEN has always been a traditional theatre company for the most part, but every now and then, they like to experiment. 

“It started in 2010 with Sex Tape Project which isolated actors in a hotel, performing the physical actions of a play, while the audience was across the street with binoculars, watching,” he says. “Each audience member listened over headphones to one of three distinct audio plays that were possible interpretations of what was happening in the hotel, all matching the same physical action.”

 Last year, fu-GEN ran another experiment in Markham called Fearless. It was created to reach Asian Canadian communities in the suburbs who don’t travel to the downtown core in Toronto to see theatre.  

“Our response was to create one-on-one immersive theatre pieces that happened between one performer and one audience member in the audience member’s car while they drove,” Yee says. “We developed an app that functioned like Uber in reverse, where drivers could select and book passengers, but those passengers were artists waiting to start a very immersive and intimate short performance.”

A similar principle is at play with the new production Online Joy Edit.  

“What we learned from Fearless was that people are super scared of letting a stranger into their car. That’s understandable,” Yee says. “What if we went in the totally opposite physical direction while maintaining the intimacy and immersion that you get with one-on-one performance? That’s what led us to Online Joy Edit.”

Each encounter in the new production is unique, and the requirements of the audience members also change based on which they choose to do. 

“If you choose Maddie Bautista, you are signing up to sing “Bohemian Rhapsody” with her. Not just a section, not just the Wayne’s World bit, the whole song.” Yee says. “Natalie Gan will read you cringe-worthy blog posts she wrote when she was between the ages of 17 and 24 while playing the emo songs she was listening to while she wrote them.” 

One of the more unique productions is from Vienna Hehir, which is a duo with a well-known Italian fashion photographer Luigi Ceccon, who is quarantined in his apartment just outside of Rome. 

“Vienna will ask the audience member questions about their most joyful moment or memory, and Luigi will — using only what’s available in his apartment — create a unique and personal photographic impression of that audience member’s joy,” Yee explains. “I mean, that’s what artists do: we create a physical or aesthetic thing for you to attach meaning to.”

Although the production is certainly non-traditional it is definitely theatre in that it attempts to make audience members feel something, to take them somewhere. All that it requires in return is a willingness to let go. 

“I think the best thing anyone can do is to come to it with no expectations,” Yee says. “There’s nothing to prepare and no way to do it correctly or a way to do it best. Just come and be your most authentic self. That’s how the magic happens.”

To book an Online Joy Edit experience head to the fu-GEN website. 

Bif Naked is an iconic Canadian rock star and something of a spiritual guru for those who follow her social media feeds. The first single “Jim” off her upcoming album is now out and she also has a book of poetry and cartoons coming soon called Razorblade Chewing Gum. Her spring tour is no longer, but we decided to check in to ask her to tell us about a few of the books she loves. 

Here are five books that matter to her:

The Whole Bloody Bird by Irving Layton

Canadian poet Irving Layton changed my life, after discovering him when I was 15 years old. This book was the first book I had ever stolen from my high school library, and only the second thing I have ever stolen in my entire life (the first being a small package of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit Gum from a grocery store in The Pas, Manitoba, in 1977). This book, published in 1969, was the result of Layton’s journal keeping discipline mixed with poems, which he describes as his “1968 journal exploding into observations, aphorisms, and poems.” It blew my mind and sent me on my writing path for life. It is equal parts funny and moving, and I began collecting the works of Layton from this time, and currently own 29 of his books (32 if you count the ones I carelessly loaned to paramours). My Layton collection is all I wish to be buried with unless I donate them to a hospice library. I thank Irving Layton for my love of language, writing, and misadventure.

The Emperor of All Maladies by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee

When this book originally came out, in 2010, I was still experiencing much fallout from my own cancer treatments for breast cancer, which I was diagnosed with just three years before. My time as a cancer patient was transformational for me, as I became a hospital volunteer, a peer support volunteer, and a casual medical translator for my fellow chemo patients. I began to feel as though I missed my calling. Reading this elegantly written, riveting account of the history and biography of cancer was hugely meaningful to me. With this book, I reignited a joy of learning, and gleaned so much insight and inspiration surrounding cancer, its history, pathology, treatment protocol histories, and the practitioners of medicine. It is no wonder that Dr. Mukherjee won so many awards for this book! 

Don’t Let My Past Be Your Future by Harry Leslie Smith

Harry Leslie Smith was a freedom fighter. His life’s work and all his writing and calls to action should inform all of us. This book was a tremendous motivator for me, and I often use it as a reference when talking to my fellow social activist friends. Harry’s words always move me, despite my unfamiliarity with the British parliamentary activities and the election manifestos of the many players, and I always look to his activism as a benchmark. Harry Leslie Smith was fighting injustice long before the armchair activism of today’s social media whippersnappers became fashionable. His son, John, referred to his late dad as “the world’s oldest living rebel” and it’s perfect. 

Lost and Found by Sam Thiara

Sam Thiara’s story is true. He really did travel to India with only a faded photograph as his compass to find his grandfather’s village. Beautifully written, he takes us with him along the motorways, through crowded bazaars, into crowds praying at temples, and to the serene rural villages where he almost gives up his quest for the truth. Sam’s real victory is in the journey, and in turn, the reader champions him and rides the emotional roller coaster beside him. I loved this story so much, my praise for Sam Thiara’s book was included within the covers! I wrote, “Through his writing, I feel the very pulse of India’s heartbeat through Sam’s heart. In his search for his lost village, he actually finds himself. In this unbelievable story, along the way, I found myself, too.”

Living Your Yoga by Judith Lasater

Yoga has been a part of my life for more than 35 years, and it helped me stay connected to, what I felt was, my Indian birthright. Being born in New Delhi, and growing up as an adopted kid (and the only Canadian in my family) I had no stronger connection, culturally, than India. Despite my whiteness, in my childhood, I felt very Indian. As I grew up and matured, my rational thinking helped me understand my desires and needs for this cultural identity, and I would say that besides food and music, yoga was the greatest connection I found. Reading ancient texts like Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras lay a foundation for my spiritual yoga practices, but Judith’s book, Living Your Yoga brought the spiritual into my everyday. From the time that I first read this book (around 2000) to the many times since that I re-read and enjoy every page, Living Your Yoga continues to be a marvellous guide to keep me delighted by the wonders of the everyday gratitude I can cultivate — on, and off, my yoga mat.