The Events

By David Greig

David Greig’s The Events is a play inspired by the attacks in Utøya, Norway in 2011 committed by Anders Behring Breivik. It made its acclaimed debut in the Edinburg Festival in 2013, and has since been mounted across the globe in countries like the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US. The Events will be making its English Canada premiere with Pi Theatre at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

Onstage are three performers, Luisa Jojic as Claire, Douglas Ennenberg as the Boy and Mishelle Cuttler accompanying them on the piano. There is also a community choir behind the action, and yes, they will be singing! Each show features a different community choir from across Metro Vancouver. Want to know which choir is performing which night? Check out the list HERE.

The Events follows Claire, a left wing female priest who leads a community choir. Claire has experienced something terrible.  She is attempting to understand the act that changed her life and the boy behind it. A moving play about a faith-shattering act of violence, this gutsy work sets the pain of a mass-shooting survivor against the stolid, consoling presence of a community choir. While The Events struggles with violence, it also explores how we find empathy and common ground inside a tragedy.

The Events is not filled with violent acts. It focuses on how communities react to acts of aggression and how hard it can be to move past them. Greig’s play explores our destructive desire to fathom the unfathomable and asks how far forgiveness can stretch in the face of atrocity. 

Playwright: David Greig
Composer: John Browne

Director: Richard Wolfe

Featuring: Luisa Jojic and Douglas Ennenberg, accompanied by Mishelle Cuttler and twelve of Metro Vancouver's community choirs. Click here for the list of choirs.

Costume Design: Connie Hosie
Lighting Design: Brad Trenaman
Design Consultant: Alan Brodie
Music Supervisor: Mishelle Cuttler
Production Manager: Jayson McLean
Stage Manager: Jethelo E. Cabilete
Movement Advisor: Jo Leslie
Choir Coordinator: Davey Calderon