WORLD PREMIERE
Touchstone Theatre & Ruby Slippers Theatre presents
HURRICANE MONA
By Pippa Mackie
Rebel environmental activist and elder millennial Mona is placed under house arrest after smashing a police car topless during a peaceful climate march. Forced to serve her term in her parent’s suburban home, tensions flare as Mona rails against the shopping habits of her Boomer parents and her Gen Z sibling’s apparent apathy in the face of looming catastrophe. But as Mona’s burning drive for her family to “do better” begins to turn the home on its head, an unimaginable disaster happens right in the middle of their living room, forcing them to reckon with themselves and a future in crisis.
A crazy mushroom trip, a giant talking frog, and catastrophic family dysfunction: Hurricane Mona is a hilarious and arresting cautionary tale for our times.
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Photo by Emily Cooper
Pictured: Sherine Menes, Diane Brown, Alex Gullason, Craig Erickson, Raugi Yu
DATES:
Nov 18 - Dec 3, 2023
WHERE:
Historic Theatre, The Cultch
RUNNING TIME:
90 mins
CONTENT WARNING
This show contains nudity, drug use, foul language, mention of suicide, fog and loud noise. Recommended for ages 16+
SHOWTIMES: Nov 18 - Dec 3
Sat, Nov 18 @7:30PM – Preview
Sun, Nov 19 @2PM – Preview
Tues, Nov 21 @7:30PM – Preview – Talkback with Tamiko Suzuki + Peter McCartney
Wed, Nov 22 @2PM – PWYC
Wed, Nov 22 @7:30PM – OPENING
Thurs, Nov 23 @7:30PM
Fri, Nov 24 @7:30PM
Sat, Nov 25 @2PM
Sat, Nov 25 @7:30PM
Sun, Nov 26 @2PM
Tues, Nov 28 @7:30PM – Talkback with Karl Perrin and guests (TBD)
Wed, Nov 29 @2PM –PWYC
Wed, Nov 29 @7:30PM
Thurs, Nov 30 @7:3oPM
Fri, Dec 1 @7:30PM
Sat, Dec 2 @2PM – VocalEye audio description
Sat, Dec 2 @7:30PM
Sun, Dec 3 @2PM – CLOSING
CAST & CREATIVE TEAM
Director
Roy Surette
Starring
Diane Brown
Craig Erickson
Alex Gullason
Sherine Menes
Raugi Yu
Set Designer
John Webber
Lighting Designer
Hina Nishioka
Sound Designer
Mary Jane Coomber
Costume Designer
Sheila White
Props by
Apollo Palmer
Dramaturgy by
Stephen Drover
Assistant Director
Cameron Peal
Stage Manager
Stephen Courtenay
Apprentice Stage Manager
Finnley O’Brien
Technical Director | Production Manager
Alistair Wallace
Diane Brown
Susan
Diane is a multi award-winning director and actor, and is the Artistic Director of Ruby Slippers Theatre. She has been honoured to receive recognition for her work including the prestigious Bra D’Or from Playwrights Guild of Canada, a national award in recognition of her years of commitment to furthering under-represented voices. Select acting for RST: The Duchess a.k.a. Wallis Simpson, Communion, A Beautiful View. For Touchstone: Sled, Happy Place. Select directing for RST: Benevolence, You Will Remember Me, Les Belles-soeurs, Trout Stanley, Aprés Moi, The Leisure Society. Diane heads up Theatre Cares
and sits on the Advisory Board for Vancouver Civic Theatres. She earned a BFA from SFU and an MFA in Directing from UBC. Diane dedicates this show to Dylan.
Craig Erickson
Rick
For Touchstone: Prodigal Son (with Pacific Theatre). Other: Henry V (Bard on the Beach), The Cull (Arts Club), Yellow Fever (Firehall), Wakey Wakey (PT) East Van Panto: The Wizard of Oz (Theatre Replacement), Forget About Tomorrow (Belfry/Arts Club), Angels in America, Parts 1 and 2 (Arts Club), As You Like it (Bard on the Beach), Titus Buffonius (Rumble Theatre), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Arts Club/Blackbird Theatre), Tear the Curtain (Arts Club/Electric Company), The Great Gatsby(Theatre Calgary). Also in production: Craig and castmate Raugi Yu have created a TV comedy pilot about security guards called Calvin and Jerzy.
Alex Gullason
Mona
Alex is a Jessie and Ovation award-winning actor, singer and comedian hailing from North Vancouver, BC. She is a graduate of the Musical Theatre Program at Capilano University.
Select theatre credits include Cabaret/Company/Sweeney Todd (Raincity), Mamma Mia! (Chemainus Theatre), We Now Know/Jesus Christ:The Lost Years/The Canada Show (Monster), Hair (Renegade), Broken Sex Doll (Virtual Stage) Titanic/Bye Bye Birdie/Joseph (TUTS). Film/TV credits include Schmigadoon! Season 1 & 2 (AppleTV), Christmas in Tahoe (Hallmark), Riverdale/The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (The CW). Alex performs weekly with the main stage ensemble at The Improv Centre and is one half of the two-women comedy duo The Dangerous Janes.
Sherine Menes
Jay
Sherine Menes is a first-generation immigrant from the Philippines and is honoured to practice their artistic work on the unceded ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. They trained under the Intensive Acting Program at Vancouver Institute of Media Arts in 2021. After graduating, Sherine joined the cast of buto/buto : Bones are Seeds, a community devised theatre project that reflected the intergenerational stories of Vancouver’s Filipinx. Sherine was a part of a residency at the James Black Gallery and exhibited their multimedia work alongside other queer Filipinx artists at ‘bahay na babalik-balikan (a home to always return to)’.
Raugi Yu
Frog
Raugi Yu is a graduate of The Dome Theatre program at Dawson College and The BFA Acting program at UBC, he makes his home in BC with his lovely wife and their two kids who love and support him unconditionally. This will be Raugi’s third show with Ruby Slippers Theatre having previously performed in, “The Duchess” and “I Lost My Husband”. For Touchstone Theatre this will be his debut performance! Raugi is extremely honoured and excited that it will be in this particular show with such stellar people. As always, Raugi sends you love and light and wishes you a great experience.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
PIPPA MACKIE
Pippa Mackie is an award-winning actor, playwright, and producer of feisty and satirical theatre. Her work has been performed on stages and at festivals across North America. Most notable credits include The Progressive Polygamists co-written/performed with Emmelia Gordon, which toured across Canada for many years including the Just For Laughs Festival and the Firehall Arts Centre and won Vancouver and Edmonton’s Pick of The Fringe. Juliet: A Revenge Comedy, which she co-wrote with Ryan Gladstone, was nominated for six Jessie Richardson awards, including Outstanding Original Script and Best Production Small Theatre, and has been touring Canada since 2019. Juliet: A Revenge Comedy will be presented as part of The Cultch’s 2023/24 Season in February 2024.
Her one-act play Starman, which was originally commissioned and produced as part of Upintheair Theatre’s The Array, was adapted into an audio drama as part of Sound the Alarm Theatre’s podcast series in 2021 and received 3 Berlin Film Haus nominations including Best Scriptwriting and Best Podcast. She is also co-writing a mockumentary comedy podcast titled Philippa Po: Changing Minds with Ryan Gladstone produced by Sound the Alarm Theatre.
Hurricane Mona was created as part of the Arts Club Theatre’s Emerging Playwrights Unit and was awarded Touchstone Theatre’s David King Prize for Comedy in 2022. Pippa was also a participant of the 2023 Banff Playwrights Unit with Hurricane Mona.
Pippa is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.
About Ruby Slippers Theatre:
Vision: Ruby Slippers Theatre (RST) imagines an inclusive world where diversity is
celebrated through a deeper understanding of each other.
Mission: To realize this vision, RST illuminates under-represented perspectives by
giving voice and opportunities to diverse artists from across the country including
Québec works in English translation.
For three decades, critically heralded Ruby Slippers Theatre has given voice to under-represented artists garnering over sixty awards, three national tours, and the creation of five original full length works. We are the premiere purveyors of Québec works in English translation within our region, translations that we at RST often commission, and have a reputation for smart social satire that is infectiously entertaining. RST’s annual Advance Theatre Festival provides development and showcase opportunities to female identifying and gender non-conforming playwrights and directors who also identify as Indigenous, Black, or Persons of Colour. Our two annual main stage offerings and Artist in Residency program also reflect our values and commitment to advance the radically inclusive stage.
