Toronto, ON (March 12, 2019): Expect Theatre’s PlayME - the podcast that transforms Canadian plays into audio dramas - and Canada’s #1 podcaster, CBC Podcasts, announced today that The Fish Eyes Trilogy from Canada’s Governor General's Protégé Prize and Dora Award-winning playwright, Anita Majumdar, is available now as an audio drama in three bingeable chapters. An additional episode featuring an interview with the playwright will be available on March 19. PlayME is available on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, Spotify, and online at cbc.ca/playmeCBC and PlayMEpodcast.com.
The trilogy, featuring three one-act plays - Boys With Cars, Let Me Borrow That Top and Fish Eyes - are each told from the perspective of a different high school girl from Majumdar’s hometown of Port Moody, B.C. Performed by the talented Majumdar as well, the plays straddle the light and the dark aspects of high school life, and centre on the fish-out-of-water experiences of insecure teenagers who are wading through issues like consent, cultural appropriation and feeling like an outsider.
The full trilogy was produced during Factory Theatre’s 2017-2018 season and Boys With Cars was mounted by Young Peoples Theatre in the spring of 2017, winning Majumdar two Dora Awards: Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Performance in the Theatre for Young Audiences Division.
In the first play, Boys With Cars, we meet Naznin, an Indo-Canadian teen falling in love with a boy named Lucky. One day, while Lucky is away, Naznin is sexually assaulted by his friend Buddy. When the rumours start flying, Naznin is blamed and brutally bullied by Buddy's white girlfriend Candice and other "school cools". Let Me Borrow That Top features Buddy’s girlfriend Candice as she records a makeup tutorial for a YouTube channel while awaiting the results of a pregnancy test. And Fish Eyes is about Meena, who grew up learning Indian dance and obsesses about Bollywood until her crush on Buddy leads her to quit an upcoming dance competition in India.
The Fish Eyes Trilogy is PlayME’s third of five audio dramas to be released as part of its new season, in partnership with CBC Podcasts. Each play is recorded in three episodes, followed by an episode that features an interview with the respective playwright. The season began with Prairie Nurse by Marie Beath Baidian followed by Hannah Moscovitch’s What A Young Wife Ought To Know. The remaining plays continue to feature a diverse array of Canadian stories from coast to coast to coast:
- 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
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