With humour and some heartbreaking honesty, a theatre show coming to Surrey tells a story about “the discomfort of navigating adulthood for the first time.”
Awkward Hug also challenges what a “normal” family can look like, during the show’s one-night-only staging at Surrey City Hall’s Centre Stage theatre on Friday, Nov. 8, starting at 8 p.m.
The O Albatross company production was written by Cory Thibert, who has earned accolades for his performance at fringe festivals across Canada.
In the summer of 2009, he was a quiet 19-year-old living in his parents’ basement. “He was working as a server to pay his college tuition, spending time with his animal-loving girlfriend, and starting a theatre company with his best friend,” according to one description of the show.
“When the Ottawa Affordable Housing Unit informs his parents that they have to move out of the only home Cory has ever known, it sets in motion a series of events that uncover the truth about what has set his family apart, and force Cory to find his voice…with a scream.”
With storytelling and “intimate reflection” in this solo show, Thibert explores life with two parents who have disabilities, and the housing situation that unfolds.
One reviewer with GigCity in Edmonton described Awkward Hug as a “spectacular coming-of-age story will make you laugh, cry and everything in between,” while the Winnipeg Free Press called the show “sensitive, sharp and never sappy.”
Raved Neil Scott, performing arts programmer with the City of Surrey: “You will laugh out loud and feel all the feels.”
Tickets for the Linnea Gwiazda-directed show, presented by Surrey Civic Theatres, are $30 or $20, depending on the seat’s location in the theatre. For details, call 604-501-5566 or visit tickets.surrey.ca. Centre stage is located at 13450 104th Ave., Surrey.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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