An upcoming Prairie Theatre Exchange production asks existential questions and examines the global repercussions of a community’s sudden disappearance.    

Conceived and directed by Winnipeg’s UNIT Productions and Toronto-based company Mammalian Diving Reflex, Everything Has Disappeared explores the far-reaching impact of the Filipinx diaspora and asks what the potential impact of its imagined erasure might be.  

“The show basically tells the story of the research that we did to look at this question and the surprises that we found,” says co-creator Darren O’Donnell of Mammalian Diving Reflex.  

Without giving too much away, the surprises were many. 

“It was uncovering interesting thing after interesting thing,” says co-creator Hazel Venzon of UNIT Productions.  

For Venzon, the idea of exploring her own community came naturally.  

“It's really important for me to not only spotlight myself and my own story but really help the community also see themselves in my work,” she says.  

In addition to extensive consultation and conversation with the local Filipinx community, Venzon and O’Donnell also spoke with economists and other researchers to better understand the short-term and long-term global impact of the imagined disappearance.  

Venzon stars in the upcoming production which combines mind-reading, mentalism, stage magic and video projection.  

Everything Has Disappeared runs from February 1 - 4, 2024 at Prairie Theatre Exchange.  

For tickets and more details, visit: www.pte.mb.ca  

Listen to the full conversation below!