Bad New Days
Italian Mime Suicide /
Suicide d'un mime à l'italienne
ITALIAN MIME SUICIDE played at Théâtre aux Écuries in Montreal in 2021 & at The Theatre Centre in Toronto in 2022.
The sold-out Montral run earned a “Top Ten Shows of 2021” by the Montreal Gazette, and the Toronto run earned 8 Dora Award nominations, winning for 5: Best Production, Best New Play, Direction, Lighting Design, and Costume Design.
With an imagistic aesthetic reminiscent of the kitsch iconography of clowns, mimes and world-weary circus acrobats, ITALIAN MIME SUICIDE sensitively explores the levity within tragedy, creating a funny, poetic meditation on melancholy, the acceptance of failure and the usefulness of art in troubled times.
ITALIAN MIME SUICIDE marks Bad New Days’ return to Toronto stages to ask why do we make art, why is it important, and why now?
“Italian Mime Suicide features four marvellous mimes accompanied by a turntable musician who fuses jazz, electro and traditional polyphonic singing. Through different vignettes, always funny, sad and touching at the same time, the characters depict what could have caused the despair of this mime and pushed him to end his life. […] isn’t that precisely the magic of mime? To offer only poetry and beauty, even if it is a question of interpreting the greatest tragedies…?” –Sophie Jama, pieuvre.ca
Directed by ADAM PAOLOZZA and KARI PEDERSON
Created by THE COMPANY
Dramaturgy by KARI PEDERSON
Set, Costume & Projection Design by EVGENIA MIKHAYLOVA
Based on Original Set & Projection Designs by ANAHITA DEHBONEHIE & Costume design by ALLIE MARSHALL
Lighting Design by ANDRE DU TOIT
Music by Turntablist SLOWPITCHSOUND (Cheldon Paterson)
Based on Original Music and Arrangements by ARIF MIRABDOLBAGHI, BRUCE MACKINNON, JUSTIN RUPPEL.
Performed by ROB FEETHAM, ADAM PAOLOZZA, NICHOLAS EDDIE and ERICKA LEOBRERA
Original Cast Rob Feetham, Miranda Calderon (Toronto '16), Rose Tuong (Montreal '21) Adam Paolozza, Viktor Lukawski
Stage Managed by DYLAN TATE-HOWARTH
*Italian Mime Suicide won 5 Dora Mavor Moore awards in 2022 for Outstanding Lighting Design, Costume Design, Direction, Outstanding New Play, and Outstanding Production
poster photo & design by Omar David Rivero
teaser by Sandrick Mathurin
other photos by Najim Chaoui