Talk Is Free Theatre Presents This September I DO, I DON’T, I DARE
September 19 – 29, 2024
Various Locations in Barrie
Whether you are spiritually (and/or legally) united with someone, a collection of people, or hopelessly devoted to yourself, I DO, I DON’T, I DARE! will give you all sorts of ways to contemplate, speculate, and celebrate commitment in all its forms!
DO take in heartfelt stories of romance and tradition with An Ojibwe Outlander in Glasgow, Something Old, and New Vows.
DON’T be afraid to experience the weird and wonderful with White Taffeta Silk (or, Don’t Do It Bestie!), Baby, and Still Life of A Wedding.
DARE to find out what other people think about relationships with Everyone Is Interesting: The Committed Edition and The Marriage Council.
And while you’re at it, check out one of our festival-long installations (Telephone of the Wind, Confess to the Dress) and hear some hot takes on love with one of several Flash Performances.
With about a dozen taking place September 19 – 29 at various locations in and around Barrie, this festival is certain to change your wife. Er, LIFE.
2024 Show Highlights
September 19 – 22, 24 -29, 2024
White Taffeta Silk (or, Don’t Do It Bestie!)
Hampton Inn Guest Laundry Room, 74 Bryne Dr, Barrie
Written by Nathaniel Hanula-James
Directed by Sadie Berlin
In the nowhere town of Peplum, Ontario, three days before prom, two teenagers steal a wedding dress and unleash a frightful force. Staged in a laundry room at Barrie’s Hampton Inn, this short play by festival curator Nathaniel Hanula-James is a claustrophobic horror-comedy about the meaning of marriage, and the desire to keep your loved ones close.
September 19 – 29, 2024
Telephone of the Wind
Meridian Place
The first Telephone of the Wind (風の電話) was created by the Japanese artist Itaru Sasaki, in 2010, in response to the death of his cousin from cancer. Sasaki purchased a derelict phone booth, installed a disconnected rotary phone, and set it up in his garden. In 2011, after a tsunami in Japan left over 15,000 dead and over 2,500 missing, Sasaki relocated the phone booth to a hill near the town of Otsuchi: the place with the highest number of recorded missing persons. It has become a place where people from Otsuchi, Japan, and all over the world can come to “call” people they have lost.
Over the years, different people and organizations have created new Wind Phones in many different locations around the globe. During the festival, Talk is Free Theatre invites you to find the Wind Phone we’ve installed in a solitary corner of Memorial Square and make a call to a lost loved one.
September 19 – 29, 2024
Confess to the Dress!
Location to be discovered by you!
Designed by Jawon Kang, Julia Kim, Bianca Guimarães de Manuel, and Christine Ting-Huan 挺歡 Urquhart
Talk is Free Theatre has asked four intrepid designers to create wedding dress installations around a theme of their choice. We’ll place them around the downtown core of Barrie in top-secret locations for you to find!
Closer to the festival, we’ll post a series of clues on our website to lead you to each of the dresses. During your scavenger hunt, you might find yourself writing a letter to a dress — and who knows? It just might write you back…
September 21 – 22. 2024
Everyone Is Interesting: The Committed Edition
Meridian Place at the Barrie Cenotaph
By Mammalian Diving Reflex/Darren O’Donnell
This is a roving performance that involves active audience participation. Please dress according to weather conditions.
Everyone is, in some way, committed to something. Inspired by Mammalian Diving Reflex’s internationally acclaimed social acupuncture workshops and performances, Everyone is Interesting: The Committed Edition is a community walking project that aims to explore, play with, and unite the individuals who call Barrie home.
September 21 – 22, 2024
Still Life of a Wedding
Barrie by the Bay Commercial Complex, 80 Bradford Street
By Other Hearts Collective
Still Life is a reflection on the ephemeral nature of human culture. Drawing on the histories of Western art, this series of performances reflects on the opulence and rich symbolic language of still life painting, while considering how these images (and the cultures they communicate) may be interpreted after our disappearance. This is the second in an ongoing series of works by Other Hearts that re-contextualizes our key moments of ceremony and community through the lens of a post-human world, rendering these familiar moments both strange and strangely beautiful.
At the end of the performance, glasses are filled, and time stands still as the audience is invited onto the stage, for the last wedding.
September 21, 22, 27 – 29, 2024
An Ojibwe Outlander in Glasgow
Donaleigh’s Irish Public House, 28 Dunlop St. E., Barrie
Created and Performed by Dillan Meighan-Chiblow
In this cabaret set in Bonnie Scotland, an Ojibwe man in his early twenties heads to Glasgow to find himself again — only to find himself swept up in a Gaelic romance. Hear Dillan share the story that changed his life, told with humour, song, and a wee bit of Scottish charm!
September 21 – 22, 27 – 28, 2024
Flash Performances!
In front of Samson’s Salon and Spa balcony, 50 Dunlop Street East, Barrie
Written by Eden Middleton and Mitchel Raphael
A cornucopia of performers will deliver exciting micro-performances: a series of brief manifestos and hot takes on marriage, relationships, and the nature of love.
September 28 – 29, 2024
The Marriage Council
Barrie by the Bay Commercial Complex, 80 Bradford Street, Barrie
Devised and Facilitated by Richard Lam
Have you ever considered counselling for you and your partner, best friend, or beloved houseplant? Do you need advice about love, relationships, or life in general? Sign-up to talk to The Marriage Council: a panel of historical figures who should absolutely not be giving advice. In fact, the only thing they’re qualified to do is make you laugh!
September 28, 2024
New Vows
Chasing New York, 150 Dunlop Street East #104/105
Created by xLq Pop Art Performance
Calling all people with a special someone with whom you want to renew your vows. Whether your promise is days or decades old, spend a summer day with xLq, your hosts, renewing oaths made across partnerships, friendships, and kinship in the company of fellow renewers. You don’t need to be married to take part! Bring your special someone (or just bring yourself) to experience a participatory event that unearths the beauty in commitments old and new. Tunes will be provided by a DJ, along with a spread of light snacks.
xLq is a performance art drag duo that sprung from a decade-old friendship between Maddie Bautista and Jordan Campbell–who have their own vow to renew!
September 29, 2024
New Forest Voices: Something Old
Springwater Provincial Park, Main Pavilion
By Keara Voo
Lily Chan is getting married. Her mother, Stephanie, is excited to begin the wedding planning and embark on this once-in-a-lifetime journey with her only daughter. Lily, too, is excited, but has a slightly different vision for her wedding: Lily is biracial and wants to throw a Chinese wedding to celebrate her Chinese heritage. When Lily asks her beloved Pau Pau to help her plan the wedding, Stephanie — who is white — feels more and more alienated. When tragedy strikes, Lily’s family must rally to help Lily pull off a wedding that, while it may not end up being the most traditional, is one that honours where their family has come from and who they are today.
September 29, 2024
New Forest Voices: Baby
Springwater Provincial Park, Main Pavilion
By Iris Rhian
Starring TIFT darlings Jake Epstein, Vanessa Smythe and Arlene Duncan, Baby features Baby, a precocious twelve-year-old on the cusp of womanhood (the beginning of her menstrual cycle). Unable to get her period, and fearing the worst (infertility), Baby navigates bewildering misinformation latent in the doctrine taught by the fundamentalist cult where she resides. When the cult’s leader abandons his disciples, and Baby becomes impregnated through mysterious means, she must divest her conscience from God, and her extremist community, to forge her own path toward redemption.
About Talk Is Free Theatre (TIFT)
Talk Is Free Theatre (TIFT) is a dynamic and innovative theatre company based in Barrie, Ontario. Known for its bold and diverse programming, TIFT produces contemporary works that challenge, entertain, and inspire audiences. The company is dedicated to fostering new voices and pushing the boundaries of traditional theatre, creating a space where fresh perspectives and creative storytelling come to life.