When she finds her voice
Stage production Mouthpiece, soon to be a film, is coming to Market Hall Feb. 23
Women speak out and speak up in a new performance piece coming to Peterborough next week.
Mouthpiece will be at Peterborough’s Market Hall Feb. 23, presented by Public Energy. The award-winning hit theatre performance, which has been staged in Edinburgh, Los Angeles and across Canada, was co-created and is performed by Norah Sadava and Amy Nostbakken of Quote Unquote Collective, with movement direction and dramaturgy by Orian Michaeli.
A description: “Harrowing, humorous, and heart-wrenching journey into a woman’s psyche. Interweaving music, a cappella harmony, dissonance, text, and physicality, it follows one woman for one day, as she tries to find her voice.”
Tickets, available through the Market Hall Box Office (online and 705-749-1146), are $23 ($15 for students and the underwaged).
There are also a limited number of tickets for high school students available for $8. The performance will be followed by a reception with a chance to talk to the artists.
“The story of Mouthpiece a woman finding her voice could not be more relevant at this moment in time, as women everywhere are speaking up and speaking out against harassment and abuse,” says Public Energy’s performance curator, Victoria Mohr-Blakeney. “It really is an astounding theatrical performance, an exploration of contemporary feminism that couldn’t be more timely, we’re very lucky to them here in Peterborough.”
Hollywood actor Jodi Foster, who was impressed after seeing Mouthpiece performed in Toronto, brought the show to Los Angeles.
“When we first saw Norah and Amy’s breathtaking performance we were speechless. Mouthpiece touches on every part of the female experience from birth to death using dance, music, and wicked humour with just a bathtub for scenery. The result is a new kind of feminist language which ignites pure, intravenous emotion. It’s impossible to describe and truly unforgettable,” Foster said.
Mouthpiece’s script has recently been published by Coach House Books with an introduction by Michele Landsberg.
Canadian filmmaker Patricia Rozema, whose films include I Heard The Mermaids Singing and Mansfield Park, is adapting Mouthpiece for the screen. Shooting for the $5 million film recently wrapped in Toronto; a release date has not been announced.
“What Norah and Amy have accomplished with Mouthpiece is extraordinary,” states Public Energy artistic director Bill Kimball. “Just one of its achievements would be remarkable for a major play coming out of Stratford - either being published by one of Canada’s most important presses, or receiving a $5 million film adaptation by one of the country’s most accomplished directors. But for both to happen, well it speaks to the singular achievement of the play, which is to combine two things: compelling subject matter that speaks to audiences of all ages and backgrounds with highly entertaining performances that use the actors’ considerable vocal, acting and movement skills. Mouthpiece really is the complete package.”
Since 2015, Mouthpiece has won the Stage Award for Performance, and the Summerhall Jawbone Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2017) and was nominated for nine Dora Mavor Moore Awards including: Outstanding Production, Outstanding Performance - Ensemble, and Outstanding Sound Design/ Composition in the General Category, and won 3 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble (2015) and Outstanding Sound Design/Composition (2015/2017). Mouthpiece went on to win the award for Best New Canadian Play at the Toronto Theatre Critics Awards for the 2016/17 season.
In addition to the Feb. 23 performance, Public Energy has partnered with the Elizabeth Fry Society and the New Canadians Centre Women’s Group to host two Storytelling the Body community workshops with Nostbakken and Sadava on Feb. 22.