FESTIVAL 2025
Show Lineup
September 2, 4, & 6 @ 7:00 PM
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The Crash
by Townie Ballerinas The Crash is a peek into the lives of five neighbours in downtown St. John’s trying to survive the COVID pandemic. It all kicks off with a good old-fashioned St. Patrick’s Day scoff and scuff at Mary and John’s place. They’re all primed up on spiked punch and Paddy’s Day green stuff up. Things spiral quickly when poor Kumar, the neighbourhood drunk, literally crashes the party and ends up in emergency at St. Clare’s. Meanwhile, alerts of a global pandemic catch their attention, but for a minute, then are quickly dismissed as just another weather warning. Months later, Ms. Sheila attempts to teach her very first Zoom dance class while the family is gone cracked behind the scenes. Relationships hanging on by a thread, everyone at their wits end. Three long, hard years later, out for a stroll in Victoria Park, Kumar and Murph, have a tearful heart to heart over a swally of the strong stuff and misery at home. Packed with belly laughs and some good ol’ Newfoundland grit, The Crash promises a flashback through lockdown life—with a splash of audience participation, because why should the cast have all the fun? |
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Disassembly Required
by James Squires & Taylor Rae Groves In this short musical puppet comedy, Dusty is on a nostalgia hunt, returning to his childhood home after a nasty divorce. He finds his old toys in the attic, and they say it's playtime... Content Warnings: Coarse Language, Mild Violence, Sexually Suggestive Dialogue |
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Bee On a Plane
by Katie Vatour Passengers on a plane come into conflict over one passenger's emotional support bees. Following some comedic interplay, the situation is resolved. |
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I Don't Blame You
by Whadda Ya Call It? Productions After the passing of their mother, Willow's father is finding it hard to navigate being a single father to two children. Without his pillar to lean on, the family seems to be crumbling from within. Can a dance competition help restore this family? Content Warnings: Discussions of death and bullying |
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September 3, 5, & 7 @ 7:00 PM
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things alive
by Cheney Emberg in a sharp stream-of-thought dialogue, a mother and child wander between past, present, and future, processing the consequences of their own agency, or lack of it. they attempt to navigate their relationship as honestly and with as much humour as possible, finding at which point their aliveness became selfishness, or whether they should be alive at all. Content Warnings: Coarse Language, Subject Matter Involving Abortion, Mentions of Gun Violence. |
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Dis'is'it
by RiffRaff Productions The Mumphrey family have gathered at the church to celebrate Kevin Mumphreys wedding. But you need a bride to have a wedding. Gina Bixby, where are you? Content Warnings: Instances Of Coarse Language |
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Featuring: Jazzberry Jam
by Amanda Spencer-Parent Art is hard. Sometimes you’re stuck restarting a piece over and over again, getting more and more frustrated the more you try and fail. Sometimes you need a little help from an old friend. |
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Gladys The Singing Ghost
by Sam Chaulk Gladys The Singing Ghost was a 20th-century lounge singer who died tragically just as her career was plateauing. Now, she spends the afterlife as a spectral figure, appearing to perform tired jazz standards and lament her fate before dissolving back into ‘excruciating nothingness’. Content Warnings: Audience Participation, Discussion of death and dying, (Potential for) discussion of gender based violence and exploitation,(Potential for) Antiquated misogyny, racism and xenophobia, Loud/Abrupt Noises |
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September 9, 11, & 13 @ 7:00 PM
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love songs for when the bomb drops
by Jeremy Nolan When there's a hurricane and a nuke headed straight for the island of newfoundland, a pirate radio station becomes the only hope left. Content Warnings: Coarse language, Depictions of violence and murder, Medical trauma; coma, Death and dying |
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Principal's Office
by Emily Bridger Just shy of their 20th wedding anniversary, Ben and Ashley are called to the Principal’s Office to discuss their teenage son, Connor. As they wait we see the cracks in their marriage. “It’s cruel to ignore the truth about someone.” Content Warnings: Coarse language |
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Harold Thenderbee's 'The Debut'
by Luke Rowe Welcome to Thenderbee’s newest, most boring piece yet–so mundane, so shockingly average, it shall replace his entire theatrical catalogue and become his Debut. A showcasing of Chekhovian like vignettes without all the interpersonal drama, you’ll be treated to images such as: ‘Father lays the table for dinner’, ‘Boy Child learns chess’, and ‘Grandmother has passed away (but it’s okay because she was quite old and we’re all at peace with it really)’. |
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Real Clown
by Neurodynamic Theatrics "Real Clown" is a comedy with a lot of heart. It's a lesson in the power of community and the power of words. It's based on true events (though some names have been changed and creative liberties taken) and follows the story of Roberta Rainbow and her journey of self-acceptance as she learns what it takes to be a "real" clown. |
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September 10, 12, & 14 @ 7:00 PM
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Pieces of Resistance
by Dream Haus Productions In this short musical, Declan introduces his new boyfriend, Matt, to his mother with whom he has a close relationship; but things don’t go as Matt expects. This production features original songs that bring audience members on a journey through Matt and Declan’s contrasting perspectives on being a gay man in modern day. Declan, Matt, and their relationship embody queer joy, despite the play being in a dark setting, which symbolizes how queer people find joy in spite of living in a world that oppresses queerness. Content Warnings: Discussions of nudity, sex, and death |
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Caregiver
by Julia Moses and Francesca Handy The Psychological Drama in ‘Caregiver’ unfolds when a housewife hires a caregiver to tend to her sick mother. The bond between the two women unravels the complex ties between domestic labor, family, identity, control, love, resentment, and grief. Having inherited methods and principles of domestic labour, deeply personal to each family, ‘Caregiver’ explores how complexities of female relationships and the subconscious are linked to housework and care-work—the home becoming the physical embodiment of their minds. Content Warnings: Potentially distressing themes include dementia, poison, elder abuse, and toxic work environments. |
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Substitutes In Hiding
by Robert Flynn Two veteran substitute teachers – Ms. and Sir – hide out in the staffroom during their coveted prep period, desperate to avoid being reassigned to classroom support. Though they’ve crossed paths in schools for years, neither actually knows the other’s name. What begins as a casual conversation quickly escalates into a battle of wit, flirtation, and strategic name-guessing – intensified by a surprise school lockdown – with Ms.’s imagination punctuating the exchange with pink-lit rom-com fantasy beats. But just as sparks are about to turn into something more, a final twist knocks Ms. back to reality. A sharp, playful comedy about connection, miscommunication, and the absurdities of substitute teaching. Content Warnings: Mild flirtation, Loud/abrupt noises |
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Thoughts of Sex and Sadness
by Gazing Eye Productions A man and a woman sit next to each other at a bar on Valentine's Day. They talk. Nothing happens. Content Warnings: Sexual themes |
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September 13 @ 2:00 PM
*This performance is a staged reading presentation in the Second Space.
*This performance is a staged reading presentation in the Second Space.
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FEVER
by Melissa Williams FEVER follows W1, W2 and W3 on their journey of self-discovery and realization as they navigate an unfamiliar world causing them to question everything they know. Rooted in the deepest parts of our subconscious, the women muse over the things they wish they could forget, the things they wished they knew sooner, and the things they will never understand. Content Warnings: Intense themes not suitable for young audiences |
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Dolly's House
by Capacity Theatre Adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House, Capacity Theatre’s Dolly’s House brings conversations of bodily autonomy, ownership, and power to an explicitly queer and modern setting. By shifting the definition of domesticity, it interrogates how financial and emotional influence over others transcends traditional gender roles. Content Warnings: Mature themes |
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September 14 @ 2:00 PM
*This performance is a staged reading presentation in the Second Space.
*This performance is a staged reading presentation in the Second Space.
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Elephants
by Venus Argento Barrington As the end of the world looms, four women gather for a strange, makeshift Christmas party where existential dread, suppressed grief, and desperate hope unravel through arguments, laughter, and a surreal gift exchange. Content Warnings: Death, Religious references, Themes of sexual assault |
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Is This The War?
by Jillian Rees-Brown While searching for the father she'd never known, Carmen comes to Bell Island, to find out if he might be the 'Unknown Seaman' buried there. She meets the Storykeeper and her Faeries who carry Carmen along the storytelling journey of the 1942 German U-boat attacks at Bell Island, Newfoundland and Labrador. Content Warnings: Descriptions of wartime violence |
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THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS
SPECIAL THANKSPatrick Foran
Azal Dosanjh Lynn Panting Sam Chaulk & YOU, for 10 out-of-this-world years! |
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LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
St. John’s Shorts respectfully acknowledges that the land on which we currently stand, create and perform, and gather is the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk, whose culture has now been erased forever. The island of Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) is the unceded, traditional territory of the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq. Labrador is the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Innu of Nitassinan, the Inuit of Nunatsiavut, and the Inuit of NunatuKavut. We ask that you take a moment to reflect on whose land you are standing on, whose land you were born on, and whose land you currently live on. We ask that you reflect on how that land was taken care of, and how it is taken care of now, and finally who currently walks freely on it. If this reflection makes you uncomfortable we ask that you sit in that feeling and question it. Let it help you work towards reconciliation, something we can only achieve together. Thank you.
