Revolutions in Therapy
2003–2006 | Theatre
Created by Nadia Ross and Jacob Wren, with the artistic collaboration of Tracy Wright.
Using storytelling, question sessions and video projections, three performers—Nadia Ross, Jacob Wren and Tracy Wright—explore the parallels between psychotherapy, metaphysical isolation and the nature of performance.
At the centre of Revolutions in Therapy is the possibility that meditation and new therapeutic practices might offer a way of coping with the cruelty of life. This proposition is complicated by the opposing views of its creators, Nadia Ross and Jacob Wren, on the validity of such a claim.
What emerges is an intellectually dense yet deeply moving performance in which the personal and the philosophical intersect, and what is shared resists easy definition.
The work was presented in workshop form in Wakefield and Toronto in 2003 as part of its development. The final production was created in residence at Usine C in Montreal and officially premiered in 2004 as part of the fifth edition of Théâtres du Monde, presented by the Festival de Théâtre des Amériques. Revolutions in Therapy subsequently toured internationally until 2006.
Script
The 29-page script of Revolutions in Therapy is available upon request.
To request a copy, contact info@stounion.com.
Photos: Steve Lucas
Credits
Written and directed by: Nadia Ross and Jacob Wren
Artistic collaboration: Tracy Wright
Performed by: Tracy Wright, Nadia Ross and Jacob Wren
Set design: Nadia Ross and Jacob Wren
Video projection design: In collaboration with W.A.C. (Wakefield Art Collective)
Lighting design: Steve Lucas
Technical director: Steve Lucas
Stage management: J.P. Robichaud
Produced by: STO Union, Festival de Théâtre des Amériques (Montreal) and Theater der Welt (Germany), in association with Artword Theatre (Toronto)
Tour and production management: Menno Plukker Theatre Agent
Supported by: Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council
Performance History
2006
- UCLA Live — Los Angeles, United States
- Rotterdam Schouwburg — Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Kulturhuset — Stockholm, Sweden
2005
- Hebbel Theater — Berlin, Germany
- Theater der Welt — Bonn, Germany
- Artword Theatre — Toronto, Canada
2004 — Official Premiere
- Théâtres du Monde, Festival de Théâtre des Amériques — Montreal, Canada
2003 — Workshop Presentations
- Toronto’s Theatre Centre — Toronto, Canada
- Black Sheep Inn — Wakefield, Canada
Selected Press
“It’s an angst-riddled piece of theatre performed with ultracasual confidence; an hour of doubt presented with certainty. It’s contradictory. It’s maddening. It’s bloody good.”
The Globe and Mail, June 2005
“You want real? In her projection of pain and fear Ross…is as real as real can be; which means of course that she is acting, very well indeed.”
National Post, June 2005
“Perhaps Canada’s leading experimental theatre company….for those who are able to go with the flow and to remain open to the non-traditional, the results are rewarding.”
Toronto Star, June 2005
“STO Union’s Revolution in Therapy is a small jewel: a thoughtful, sad, amusingly interwoven creation. They transform their way of being in the world with words, the expression in their eyes, long pauses, into a wondrous poetry of the body and thought. Nothing is spectacular, everything is simple: honest, open, presented with dry humor and great concentration…Ross and Wren are more famous in Europe than in Canada, which has trouble with experimental theatre forms in principle. You can bet that a lot of European producers will be taking them on.”
Theater Heute, November 2004
“Torontonians Jacob Wren and Nadia Ross break the wall between actors and spectators like very few artists know how….more accessible than a course in transcendental meditation or a session with a shrink, and certainly as effective.”
La Presse, Montreal, 2004
“For those who love a theatre that questions, you could not find better than Revolutions in Therapy.”
Le Devoir, Montreal, 2004