Through a blend of storytelling and song, multidisciplinary artist Vivian Chong will take audiences on a hilarious and heartwarming adventure of dating as a blind woman when she performs her one-woman show Blind Dates at the Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough.
Presented by Public Energy Performing Arts, the Theatre Passe Muraille production will be coming to Peterborough for one night only on Thursday, March 20, following its recent extended world premiere in Toronto.
Chong is an award-winning author, artist, triathlete, dancer, and Dora award-nominated performer and finalist for the Toronto Book Award. She also teaches accessible yoga, is a youth leader for the blind and partially sighted community, and is an audio description consultant passionate about accessible theatre. Her original show Dancing with the Universe was part of the CoMotion Art and Disability Festival.
In late 2004, Chong lost her eyesight after developing a rare and life-threatening skin reaction to ibuprofen, which put her in a medically induced coma. The condition, toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) — also known as Lyell’s Syndrome — left her with scar tissue that eventually blinded her.
This life-changing experience is one she chronicled through her graphic memoir Dancing after TEN and through her other one-woman show The Sunglasses Monologue, which was spotlighted at Second City.
But now, she is taking audiences on a heartwarming journey to a world they might be more familiar with — dating. Blind Dates chronicles 15 years of Chong’s true stories of dating including the (often messy) mishaps, crushes, and relationships while she navigates how others perceive her blindness. The stories are paired with Chong’s original songs on piano and ukulele.
VIDEO: “Blind Dates” by Vivian Chong (Theatre Passe Muraille promo)
“I take the audience to my most intimate world, in my psyche,” she told host Tom Power during a recent interview on CBC’s Q with Tom Power. “How do I date, how do I feel when I meet someone new and how do I know that person is good looking or not, how do I know the person is reliable or not, what kind of information can I get in a very short time, or (do I) take it slow — how do I do it all.”
When asked by Illana Lucas of Broadway World about the show’s premise ahead of its world premiere, Chong shared that “it’s all about connection.”
“These days, we have so many different issues arising in the world, and sometimes when there’s too many messages, people actually get disconnected,” she said. “So my show uses dating as a lens to talk about human connection. How do we truly understand what’s important to us and our values, and how do we move forward from there?”
Throughout the show, Chong will be playing the role of herself, as well as her dates, her friends, and others who have given her dating advice over the years. She offers the audience a range of true-to-life anecdotes — from playing matchmaker while volunteering at a camp for blind individuals to kayaking and paddle boarding on Lake Ontario — and explores how the experiences have taught her something about herself.
“Each scenario and the connectivity and how juicy it is are so different from person to person, but what is in common is, when we share the airtime and share our presence with someone, it makes an impact on the other person, and they made an impact in our life,” she told Broadway World.
“And that is my entry point for writing this show, because each person I met, they’re all so unique. And I always have something to take away. Whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, it makes me reflect on what I was doing.”
With sets by Echo Zhou, sound design by Gloria Mok, and lighting by Steph Raposo, Blind Dates is a blind-friendly performance. In fact, audiences will be introduced to the blind-friendly aspects of the show even before entering the theatre.
Four patches of textures will be hanging in the Market Hall lobby for audiences to touch. Each of the patches — grassy turf, wooden boardwalk, rough sand, and smooth water with a miniature kayak — are incorporated into the set design to allow Chong to navigate through the set.
The show will also include auto-generated captions for audience members who are deaf or who have difficulty hearing, and will be a relaxed performance. Audience members can enter, exit, and move around throughout the theatre, make noise or sounds, and keep their phones on silent or vibrate if they need to. While there will also be some light over the audience throughout the performance, the sound will not go above 85 Db for extended periods of time.
Tickets for Blind Dates are offered on a sliding scale price from $5 to $50 plus fees, with a suggested price of $25 plus fees.
Tickets can be purchased in person at the Market Hall box office (140 Charlotte St, Peterborough), by phone at 705-775-1503, or online at tickets.markethall.org.
To learn more about Public Energy’s 2024-25 season, visit www.publicenergy.ca.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a long-time media sponsor of Public Energy Performing Arts.
