CUT

How do we deal with fear and pain? CUT explores how a quartet of characters embark on very different journeys in response to this question.

 

About This Play

How do we deal with fear and pain? CUT explores how a quartet of characters embark on very different journeys in response to this question. One is afraid of everything, one is hurting herself, one has been hurt, and one thinks he has all the answers. Whether it be via humour, escape, or direct confrontation, these characters live explosive truths and revelations about love, tenderness, and why it’s best not to run away. A difficult but affirmative experience.

The four characters are of varying ethnicities and cultural back- grounds, allowing us to continue to explore as a company the richness of contemporary Canadian life, and the challenges presented to immigrants in adapting to a new country. The text deals with issues of mental illness, self-cutting, paranoia and megalomania, and how all of these tendencies are warped and amplified by contemporary media.

General Technical Specs

An innovative scenographic, videographic and auditory response to the performance venue sets the stage for the visceral quality of CUT. The production requires limited scenic elements and technical support that is consistent with most theatre inventories. CUT will succeed in unique and original venues that are ripe for rediscovery as well as newer venues in need of exploration. More detailed information available upon request.

More detailed information available upon request

Original Cast

Karen Glave

As a proud graduate of George Brown Theatre School, Karen’s first professional job was Twelfth Night (CanStage, Dream in High Park). Other theatre credits include The Lady Smith (Theatre Passe Muraille), New World (Tarragon), The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare in the Rough) and Steel Magnolias (Theatre Aquarius). Karen has enjoyed numerous TV and film experiences including The Day After Tomorrow, Don McKellar’s Last Night, Da Kink in My Hair, The Hades Factor, Soul Food and Guilt by Association. Karen was also a member of the President’s Class at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England, 2001, studying with John Barton, Fiona Shaw and David Leveaux.

Jason Jazrawy

A graduate of York University’s acting program, Jason Jazrawy is based in Toronto. Selected theatre credits include Treasure Island (Theatre New Brunswick), The Melville Boys (Red Barn Theatre), Khalida (Summerworks – Outstanding Performance, NOW Magazine), Conservatives in Love (New Stages of Peterborough), Helen’s Necklace (Great Canadian Theatre Co.), Orpheus Descending (Manitoba Theatre Centre and Royal Alexandra Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Theatre By The Bay), Remnants (Tarragon Theatre), Merlin  (Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People), Peter Pan and Six Characters in Search of an Author (Shaw Festival). 

Kirstin Hinton

Kirstin Rae Hinton is a graduate of the York University Acting program. She worked professionally in Toronto for a number of years before making the move to Los Angeles in 2006. Her Canadian theatre credits include work with Tribal Productions, Crow’s Theatre, and in both Fringe and Summerworks. Her most recent film and television credits include InSecurity, Casino Jack, The New Jay Leno Show, and the recently aired Silent Witness. In LA she worked with Tim Robbins and his wonderful theatre company, The Actors Gang, where her credits include Guiderious in Cymbaline, and Mary Moylan in the touring cast of The Trial of The Catonsville Nine. 

Edward Healey

In the last 18 months, Edward has reappeared on the Toronto stage as; Geno Silva in Sonnets for An Old Century (2011 Toronto Fringe), as Howard Zinn in MMRP VDay Toronto, and as Keith Findley in Maurice Carter’s Innocence (2011 Toronto Fringe), after last appear-ing as Alan in Mayonnaise by John Ibbitson, 30 years ago. Selected film roles include: Elisha Cuthbert’s teacher in Lucky Girl; Colm Feore’s lawyer in Still Friends (also with Kathleen Turner); the hapless parent in Rent A Kid; Omar Epps’ Professor in In Too Deep; The Interviewer in Palace. Edward is also a veteran of T.V. series including Beachcombers, Mayonnaise, Night Heat, My Secret Identity, E.N.G., Due South, Kung Fu, Exhibit A, Straight Up, and Tracker.

Jason Jazrawy

A graduate of York University’s acting program, Jason Jazrawy is based in Toronto. Selected theatre credits include Treasure Island (Theatre New Brunswick), The Melville Boys (Red Barn Theatre), Khalida (Summerworks – Outstanding Performance, NOW Magazine), Conservatives in Love (New Stages of Peterborough), Helen’s Necklace (Great Canadian Theatre Co.), Orpheus Descending (Manitoba Theatre Centre and Royal Alexandra Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Theatre By The Bay), Remnants (Tarragon Theatre), Merlin  (Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People), Peter Pan and Six Characters in Search of an Author (Shaw Festival). 

Vojin Vasovic

Vojin Vasovic is a theatre and film director. He holds an MA from the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama at the University of Toronto and a Bachelor in TV l& Film Directing from The Academy of Arts, Belgrade, Serbia. Vojin has been working in film and experimental theatre since 2002. He is the recipient of several awards for lighting design and direction in theatre. His award-winning short film Breathtaking and animated film 5 Minutes have been screened at international film festivals. Vojin has just returned from the Berlinale Film Festival 2012 in Berlin, Germany and his Toronto based theatre company Ars Mechanica is touring an intermedial performance Show And Tell Alexander Bell based on the life of the great Canadian scientist.  

CUT, Play by David Fancy

SUMMARY

PRODUCED BY: David Fancy 
WRITTEN BY: David Fancy
FEATURING: Karen Glave, Jason Jazrawy, Kirstin Hinton, Edward Heeley
STAGE & LIGHTING DESIGN: Vojin Vasovic
LENGTH: 90 min., no intermission

FROM THE TEXT

"But if I can cut just the right depth, something comes up from somewhere

A force. It rises.

But if I cut too deep too long it leaks from me, wasted, and the blood makes a mess too 

though if I cut just right
it doesn’t leave,
it stays inside: and
I can ride the edge of it for days sometimes, weeks even.
I barely need to eat and I stay very skinny."

REQUEST COPY OF THE TEXT

David Fancy Playwright

Thoughts 

  • "I believe passionately in the role that language, thought, and the theatre will continue to play in imagining worlds and peoples that are less homogeneous, more rebellious, and that harbour an uncompromising desire to be radically free."
    - David Fancy