playwright pippa mackie looks the climate crisis in the eye in hurricane mona
hurricane mona, a new absurdist dark comedy, dives into the dynamics of the climate crisis for the middle class.
4 minute read
touchstone and ruby slippers theatres premiere pippa mackie's new comedy about an upper-middle class family facing climate catastrophe. from left, sherine menes, diane brown, centre, alex gullason, craig erickson and raugi yu.
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hurricane mona
when: nov. 18 to dec. 3, various times
where: historic theatre, the cultch, 1893 venables st., vancouver
tickets and info:
mona is a middle-class family nightmare in so many ways.
after trashing a police car at a peaceful climate march without a top on, the environmental activist is sentenced to serve out house arrest in her parents’ home in the suburbs. an aging millennial, mona is equally at odds with both her folks and gen z sibling about their apparent lack of interest in the face of global catastrophe.
as the family dysfunction builds to surreal situations, things get seriously weird with large leaping talking frogs, freaky fungus rides and more in hurricane mona.
playwright pippa mackie‘s “absurdist dark comedy” is co-presented by ruby slippers and touchstone theatres at the historic theatre at the cultch with a cast including alex gullason, craig erickson, diane brown, raugi yu and sherine menes. touchstone theatre’s roy surette directs. it’s a dream come true for playwright mackie to have a premiere at the cultch, a venue she grew up venerating.
the cultch premieres new environmental family play by pippa mackie in november.
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work on hurricane mona commenced in summer 2020 when mackie was part of the arts club emerging playwright’s unit.
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“sitting in my bedroom/office at the height of covid looking out at the smoky skies, i started thinking about my days as a young climate activist,” said mackie. “i was very involved in the movement in my 20s and attended rallies and so on, but came to question whether my presence was having an impact.
“my experiences of feeling fairly useless in my role and the self-congratulatory nature of people posting about things in the face of everyone’s collective fear or what is happening in the world combined with family dysfunction to become my inspiration.”
one thing that mackie was determined not to do in the play was follow the prescribed intergenerational conflict of older right-wing boomer climate deniers at odds with left-leaning younger generations warring over the looming destruction of the future. hurricane mona was going to recognize the grey cloud areas and not come across like another heavy-handed ted talk that leaves people in tears.
“a lot of families agree, but how they go about it can differ and communication can become dysfunctional,” she said. “the comedy becomes how they come together faced with a climate disaster that takes place in the middle of the family living room.”ultimately, the story highlights everyone’s culpability in contributing to climate disaster and the need to come to some resolution to effect meaningful change. mackie says the dark comic lens is her jam and that people need to be able to laugh at things impacting their lives such as anxiety in the face of the climate crisis.
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“just because we are laughing doesn’t mean we aren’t taking things seriously,” she said. “we need a place to have a cathartic experience together and a communal laugh.”
among the cast members who is sure to be grabbing guffaws is veteran taiwanese-canadian actor raugi yu taking a turn as a giant sassy frog. the last of the species appears as part-narrator/part-prophet and full-on fun. for someone who moves between tv, film and at least one play a year, yu says this is gem of a part.
raugi yu.
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“he/she/they are pretty integral to the story with these smart, entertaining introductions into the show,” said yu. “it’s the kind of crazy, wacky role that is an actor’s dream to get. having taught pippa back in the day as a teen, it was always pretty obvious that this was going to be the future.”
facing the future as the final frog is hardly a happy happenstance, but yu says the role is so well written that it manages to be both impactful and entertaining. hurricane mona doesn’t need to remind everyone of the catastrophic decline of amphibian species.
“i grew up on the south shore in montreal over a bridge by a forested area that i was in every day as a kid and it was full of frogs,” said yu. “within a few years, that forest was gone to make way for condos and the frogs were too. studies have shown that an area with no frogs is like a dying zone, so it’s intelligent and appropriate to have this character symbolizing what’s happening today.”
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touchstone theatre’s long-running artistic director roy surette directs hurricane mona. the 66-year-old artist is in his final year of a long career and is pleased to be premiering another new canadian work. over the years, he admits that nothing is as exciting as presenting new, untested work and seeing if it works or not.
hurricane mona subsequently received touchstone theatre’s david king prize, a $3,000 cash prize awarded by jury for the development or production of new comedic work. the prize is named in honour of playwright, screenwriter and songwriter david king who died in 2021.
“i was able to see a reading of the play at the cultch when it was one of the selections as a possible recipient of the inaugural david king prize and i was immediately taken by how funny and darkly satirical the show is,” said surette. “hands down, it was selected as the winner, and all i could think was, ‘what a great play, but who would ever do it because it has such crazy requirements from a staging point of view.’ now here we are.”
surette adds that he loves the way hurricane mona is art imitating life, with mackie even incorporating a viral video made about environmental issues from years ago as part of mona’s actual life.
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