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Festival TransAmériques
May 22 to June 5, 2025
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WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SEEKER?

NADIA ROSS | STO UNION

A three-pronged scrutiny that paints a scathing portrait of a generation trying desperately to revive its ideals after sacrificing them on the altar of free trade.

Details

THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE
An avowedly outsider artist, Nadia Ross deconstructs the conventional stage in telling the story of the “seekers”, people looking for meaning to their lives and who travelled to India in the 1960s. Now rampant consumers, these former hippies have reduced Katmandu to a Disneyworld of spirituality, and the West to a decadent neoliberal feast. How did they get from there to here? The answer is threefold.

The spectator embarks on a wide-ranging inquiry, moving through three spaces in this performance triptych that perfectly illustrate this spiritual drift. The staging multiplies points of view: a sensitive interactive exhibit, testimonial video about an initiatory journey, a performance where the artist stands on stage and tells a story. The overall experience forces us to ask questions, to take a position. From the private to the communal, this is a scathing portrait of a society that has lost its moorings, that desperately tries to revive its ideals after sacrificing them on the altar of free trade.

Credits

PRODUCED BY STO UNION
CREATED AND DIRECTED BY NADIA ROSS IN ASSOCIATION WITH GEORGE ACHESON + SARAH CONN + ROB SCOTT
PERFORMED BY GEORGE ACHESON + SARAH CONN + NADIA ROSS
LIGHTING DESIGN STEVE LUCAS
SET DESIGN BARRY PADOLSKY
VIDEO NADIA ROSS + ROB SCOTT
EXHIBIT ITEMS STO UNION + WAKEFIELD ART COLLECTIVE
MUSIC WAYNE HUNTER

COPRODUCTION FESTIVAL TRANSAMÉRIQUES + THE THEATRE CENTRE (TORONTO) + BIT TEATERGARASJEN (BERGEN) + BRUT-WIEN KOPRODUCTIONSHAUS (VIENNA) IN ASSOCIATION WITH WAKEFIELD ART COLLECTIVE PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THÉÂTRE PROSPERO

WRITTEN BY DIANE JEAN
TRANSLATED BY NEIL KROETSCH

 

NADIA ROSS | STO UNION (Wakefield/ Ottawa)

Rethinking Theatre
A writer, director, actress and producer, Nadia Ross is the founder and artistic director of STO Union. Assisted by her artistic collaborators George Acheson, Rob Scott and Sarah Conn, she is constantly upending the codes of representation, freely making use of fragmented staging and a diverse range of storytelling devices, from performance art and lectures to installations, films and exhibits. Her works are characterized by an unspectacular approach to theatre, with a marked preference for emphasizing the complexity of human relations and interactions in the here and now.

Full biography