Since 2014, Bad New Days has established a unique presence in Canadian theatre creating visually bold and physically innovative theatrical works that explore the complexity of the human condition through a volatile blend of lightness and gravity, drawing from the theatrical traditions of the past and re-imagining them in a contemporary aesthetic context.
Our aesthetic is self-consciously ‘theatrical’. We sometimes refer to it as 'theatre of gesture', or 'visual theatre', but we really just think of it as theatre.
We acknowledge our debt to 'popular' theatrical forms, the 'fairground theatre', the grotesque, the absurd & the uncanny.
We offer an alternative to theatrical naturalism and the traditional script-driven creation model, giving primacy to the body, gesture and the image in storytelling in order to transcend linguistic barriers and discover new theatrical forms evolved to respond directly to the times we live in.
BAD
NEW
DAYS
Our Mandate
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the Research, Development and Production of Original Devised Work
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a Collaborative Creative Practice as well as the Research & Development of new Collaborative Creaton Models
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Formal Innovation via the re-contextualization of traditional performance tropes and schemes and the development of Alternative Narrative Structures
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Touring Nationally and Internationally
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Offering Affordable Training & Education opportunities, working towards a deeper understanding of performance for the artist and for the community and offering support to artists that self-identify as 'devised creators'
Our name
It comes from Brecht via Walter Benjamin:“Let's not talk about the good old days, but the bad new ones.”
The theatre is still live. It retains its potential to be a truly explosive civic gathering. The theatre can still play host to anarchy and offer people an alternative vision of life. We see it as our duty to challenge the predominant myths and narratives that drive our existence and are causing so many of the contemporary problems facing humanity.
Our ethos is inspired by the Roman god Janus. He was double-faced keeping one eye to the Past and one to the Future.
From the Past we evoke theatre's initial social function: a civic encounter where a spontaneous community can experience a vision of life. In this sense we are also a visionary theatre.
To approach the Future we begin with the Present, the Bad New Days. Our work starts with a deep, critical looking at life, history and civilization. It is concerned with the language of theatre and the nature of representation.