Flashing Lights

By: An Ahuri Theatre // Bad NewDays co-production

"IN THE FUTURE, EVERYONE WILL BE FAMOUS FOR 15 MINUTES."- ANDY WARHOL

Created by award-winning Bad New Days (The Double) and AhuriTheatre (This is the Point), FLASHING LIGHTS is an original play exploring how digital technology is radically shaping human evolution.

FLASHING LIGHTS tells the tale of Peter, an unremarkable guy who inexplicably becomes famous. His dizzying rise and fall effects everyone around him, in particular his family; his savvy wife Shannon and their child Ter. What starts off as a portrait of contemporary family life quickly unravels into a meditation on the borders between digital and physical existence and the future of this brave new world being created.

FLASHING LIGHTS combines a fantastical absurdist narrative with a highly physical theatrical style using technology like smart phones and tablets as puppets, masks, light, and sound sources. Drawing on the ideas of MarshallMcLuhan, Sherry Turkle, Jean Baudrillard and other theorists, FLASHING LIGHTS speaks to the growing anxiety about the future and to the vertiginous feeling that time itself is speeding up. Will humankind frail, flesh and blood selves be able to keep up?

This new play has been created collaboratively by award-winning theatre artists Adam Paolozza (Spent &The Double), Guillermo Verdecchia (Governor General and Chalmers Award Winner), Ken MacKenzie (Kims Convenience, Brantwood), Dan Watson (This is the Point, Ralph + Lina), Liz Peterson (Performance About A Woman, Capitalist Love Duets), Miranda Calderon (Butcher, Taking Care of Baby), Melissa Joakim (Seasick), Matt Smith (Prince Nifty) and features new performers Christopher Sawchyn and Kari Pederson.