vAct Creation Lab | December 9-10

Largely set on the train in present-day Greater Vancouver, On The Tracks follows Meena and her mom, Radhika, who are on their way for a fun day in Gastown to celebrate Meena’s university graduation. When Radhika receives a call from Mumbai, the trajectory of their journey takes a sharp turn: beloved Rajen Mama, Meena’s uncle and Radhika’s older brother, has died. Meena and Radhika each grapple with this devastating news in their own ways, and eventually, together. On The Tracks explores loss and grief, memory, time, and hope, while experimenting with sound and music.

Content warning: The presentation this evening contains references and images of war and violence, as well as references to childhood experiences as shaped by these events.

Draw Me a Home is a poetic retelling of memories of a war, surrealist stories of lives lived elsewhere, a peeling away of the dust blanketing a shared history. Based on interviews with people who experienced the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) as children, the piece explores themes of displacement, survival, and the echoes of a fractured homeland. Through fragmented narratives swaying between English and Farsi, Draw Me a Home evokes the resilience of a people caught between the violence of history and the tenderness of personal remembrance with moments of joy buried just beneath the rubble—an invitation to witness, imagine, and feel the weight of a past that is both distant and ever-present.

The Creation Lab is vAct’s annual new work development program. We present two brand new work-in-progress showings over the course of two days.

Facilitating the creation and development of new theatrical work by emerging and mid-career Asian Canadian artists, this program is our commitment to the next generation of Asian Canadian theatre-makers. The vAct Creation Lab showcases stories from Asian Canadian perspectives and develops new works for future production opportunities.