Toronto, ON: Expect Theatre’s PlayME - the podcast that transforms Canadian plays into audio dramas - and Canada’s #1 podcaster, CBC Podcasts, announce that renowned playwright Hannah Moscovitch’s What A Young Wife Ought To Know is available now as an audio drama in three binge-able chapters. An additional episode featuring an interview with Moscovitch will be available on January 22. PlayME is available on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, Spotify, and online at cbc.ca/playmeCBC and PlayMEpodcast.com.
What A Young Wife Ought To Know offers hard truths about life for women without birth control through the story of a young wife living in poverty in 1920s Ottawa, and paints a stark picture of what’s at stake in women's health and fertility that resonates today. The podcast features the original Halifax-based 2b theatre company cast that toured Canada - David Patrick Flemming, Rebecca Parent and Liisa Repo-Martell. Directed by Christopher Barry, the Globe and Mail said of the theatrical production, “What Moscovitch seems to want young women, wives or not, to know [is] what they’ve gained and could, once again, lose” while the Toronto Star noted, “The play adds to necessary, current conversations around representation of women, gender inequity and female sexuality.”
“Moscovitch’s unflinching look at women living in poverty without access to birth control in Canada in the 1920s has been so vivid it has caused seven people attending the live show to faint in the theatre in different cities,” notes Chris Tolley, Expect Theatre and PlayME Co-Artistic Director. “The performance even had to be stopped once and the paramedics called. Thanks to PlayME, women - and people in general - all over the world can hear this urgent play,” adds Co-Artistic Director Laura Mullin.
Hannah Moscovitch is no stranger to audio fiction; she was a writer for CBC Radio’s Afghanada. Moscovitch is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose work has been produced across Canada as well as in the United States, Britain, Ireland, Greece, Japan, Germany, Austria and Australia. She has been the recipient of numerous awards for her work, including the Trillium Book Award, the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, the SummerWorks Prize for Production, both the Scotsman Fringe First and the Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Festival, and the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize.
This is PlayME’s second audio drama to be released as part of its new partnership with CBC Podcasts. Each play is recorded in three episodes, followed by an episode that features an interview with the respective playwright. The current season with CBC Podcasts began with Prairie Nurse by Marie Beath Baidian, available now. The remainder of the season continues to feature a diverse array of Canadian stories:
- The Fish Eyes Trilogy by Dora Award-winner Anita Majumdar: a teen’s fury about consent, cultural appropriation and colonialism in Port Moody, B.C. Available March 5.
- Huff by award-winning writer and performer Cliff Cardinal: an unflinching look at brothers on a reserve who struggle with solvent abuse and suicide. Available April 16.
- Between Breaths by Governor General’s Award-winner and Newfoundland-based playwright Robert Chafe): the final moments of the “Whaleman” of Newfoundland as he reflects on a life dedicated to rescuing trapped whales. Available June 18.
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PlayME:
Since its inception in 2016, PlayME has transformed a variety of independent Canadian theatre productions into audio podcasts. With close to one million downloads in over 90 countries to date, PlayME is in the vanguard of facilitating international access to Canadian theatre and building an audience and appetite for it from all over the world (eight out of ten listeners is from outside Canada). PlayME is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
For “Drama on Demand,” tune in to PlayME at http://www.playmepodcast.com where the catalogue of podcasts can be heard.
Expect Theatre is an award-winning, Toronto-based company dedicated to producing cutting-edge, original, multi-disciplinary productions that explore modern urban life. Formed in 1998 by co-Artistic Directors Laura Mullin and Chris Tolley, Expect has a long track record of creating integrated theatre works, radio plays for CBC, viral videos and site-specific performance art installations. Works include Romeo/Juliet Remixed, Static, Awake, CBC Radio’s Tunnel Runners, AWAKE the film and the annual urbanNOISE festival. Mullin and Tolley launched PlayME - an online portal presenting audio podcasts of Canadian plays and related content - in 2016. http://www.expect.org , http://www.playmepodcast.com
From Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC Podcasts is a richly diverse collection of award-winning podcasts that engage, enlighten and entertain. CBC is the #1 podcaster in Canada, reaching more Canadians than any other podcast publisher. With more than 20 series in genres such as investigative reporting and true crime, comedy, human interest and audio fiction, CBC podcasts are downloaded 16 million times* per month.
*Source: Sumo Logic (Sept 2017 to April 2018).
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Media Refer:
For Expect Theatre/PlayME: Dianne Weinrib – DW Communications dw@dwcommunications.net 416-703-5479
For CBC Podcasts: Tanya Koivusalo – CBC Publicist tanya.koivusalo@cbc.ca 416.205.8638
Interviews on request.
High Rez & Web-Sized photos downloadable here and on the CBC Media Centre.
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