When Genevieve Doyon was invited this summer by Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) to perform, she was stoked for a trip to Ottawa. No, no, no, they told her—she wasn’t going to Ottawa, where NAC is located. She was going to Osaka, Japan, as part of Expo 2025.
“It was beyond anything we ever could have imagined,” says Doyon, who is co-artistic director of Open Pit Theatre with Jessican Hickman.
Open Pit will take Mail Drop, a shortened version of its 2022 play, Radio Silence, to the Canadian pavilion in Osaka twice a day for 10 days, from Aug. 15 to 25.
In addition to being shortened, the piece has been modified in other ways. Because they’re performing in Japan, it doesn’t make sense for it to be in English. And because it’s a family-friendly theatre show, they didn’t want to have to use written subtitles some kids might not be able to read.
Doyon speaks over the phone from the final dress rehearsal during their residency at the Yukon Arts Centre. Packing away the puppets that are part of the show (Hickman worked on the puppets with the Wonderheads, a Victoria, B.C.-based theatre company), she’s struck that the next time she sees them will be in Osaka.
“It’s a pretty big deal for a Yukon company,” she says, pointing out that Diyet and the Love Soldiers also performed at Expo this spring.
She finds it interesting that the play, which incorporated radio in its original form, is even more wordless now. In 2019, when she and Hickman started developing Radio Silence, they were consciously looking to move away from text-based performance and found a new kind of freedom in telling a story with few words.
“When you look at the list of Canadian delegates, the fact that there’s two Yukon acts makes me so proud. For the teeny, tiny population, some high-quality stuff is coming out of here.”
The result was a tale inspired by the first mail drop made in Dawson City; by the idea of the Yukon’s first woman bush pilot; and by the beauty of the land around Dawson.
In Mail Drop, as in Radio Silence, the landscape is a character all its own, supported by projected images from local Yukon artists, including painter Rosemary Scanlon, and Vashti Etzel, whose tufting and beadwork are projected onto the stage.
“The whole visual projection design is a storyline of its own,” says Doyon.” “It’s its own work of art.”
This version of the tale also has a lot of big emotions, and is more fun, upbeat and fast-paced than its predecessor, she says.
While Doyon says she’s not the most patriotic person, she is proud to be representing the Yukon at Expo.
“When you look at the list of Canadian delegates, the fact that there’s two Yukon acts makes me so proud,” she says. “For the teeny, tiny population, some high-quality stuff is coming out of here.”
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