Expanding the possibilities
of performance

Photo, courtesy of the artist

What is left of us

Free / Installation / Participatory


2359 productions


Venue
Union Station, Bay Street Promenade


August 9, 11:00AM - 9:00PM

August 10, 11:00AM - 9:00PM

August 11, 11:00AM - 5:00PM


20 Minutes


Ticket Price
FREE (registration required)

Get Tickets
Photo, courtesy of the artist

What is left of us is a 20-minute interactive narrative piece, designed for one person at a time, set within the intimate confines of a phone booth. Upon entering, you are greeted by a ringing telephone. Answering the call initiates a journey, where the unfolding narrative is shaped by your choices.

It borrows notions of collapsology as a dramaturgical structure to discuss our societal and infrastructural legacy: what are the traces we leave behind for future generations?

In 1948, a telephone booth was set up in the Mojave Desert in southern California for the use of local miners. Decades later, the mining industry withdrew from the area, leaving behind this single phone booth as the only trace of civilization in the desert landscape.

While the history of the phone booth may initially seem anecdotal, it gains significance when juxtaposed with a discussion about collapse and infrastructure; the telephone booth is a forgotten artifact of our community. It remains everywhere. However, it is no longer visible. It must be in the middle of the desert to be perceptible once again. Nonetheless, its synthetic manufactured nature, its frame, could be one of our last traces. What will remain of the conversations we have had in these, the graffiti we have written on them, or the shelter they gave?

The phone booth, erected in the middle of apparent nothingness, a neglected artifact of a defunct collectivity, thus becomes a symbol of collapse and it’s potential.

This experience is offered both in English and in French.

Guillaume Saindon – Director
Marc-André Charette – Voice
Émilie Camiré-Pecek – Voice
Zackari Gosselin – Production manager
Florence Leguérinel – Production manager
Seth Thomson – Digital development
Marie-Ève Fontaine – Dramaturgy
Anne-Marie Ouellet – Dramaturgy
Jack Terrion – Set design
Jean-Christophe Yelle – Music
Chantal Labonté – Lighting
Sasha Hayashi – Stage Manager
Kyle Ahluwalia – Technical Director


What is left of us is supported by Canada Council for Arts, Ontario Arts Council, City of Ottawa, Zones Théâtrales, and OFFTA


Advisories

Content: eco-anxiety / collapsology
Sensory: flashing lights


SummerWorks Public Works programming – bringing artists and audiences together to experience public space in new ways.