In dark climate comedy Hurricane Mona, Alex Gullason plays a spunky environmental activist on house arrest
Hilarity-filled family dynamics and a crazy mushroom trip lead up to environmental disaster in Touchstone Theatre and Ruby Slippers premiere by Pippa Mackie
Alex Gullason. Photo by Emily Cooper
Touchstone Theatre and Ruby Slippers Theatre present Hurricane Mona at The Cultch’s Historic Theatre from November 18 to December 3, with showtimes at 2 pm and 7:30 pm
THE CLIMATE CRISIS, though perpetually worsening, often takes a back seat to more pressing political strife. But when an environmental catastrophe happens smack dab in the middle of a suburban family’s living room, it’s impossible to ignore.
That’s the premise of playwright Pippa Mackie’s new absurdist dark comedy Hurricane Mona, marking its world premiere this month at The Cultch. When millennial climate activist Mona vandalizes a police car (topless, to boot) at a peaceful climate march, she’s placed under house arrest in her family home. Confined with parents and a sibling who show minimal interest in saving the environment, Mona soon faces a surprise twist that emphasizes the urgency of the Earth’s current crisis to those around her.
Vancouver-based actor and singer Alex Gullason plays the role of Mona in the Touchstone Theatre and Ruby Slippers Theatre production. She’s been working closely with Mackie and director Roy Surette on developing the nuances of her character, who’s got a spunky personality and a drive to rally others into her cause.
“That is her mission in life, that is her entire purpose, is environmental activism,” Gullason says of Mona. “With that, she sometimes might brush people the wrong way, or end up pushing people away, because the passion is so strong. But she’s bright and determined. She’s pretty great, but she’s definitely flawed. I view her as a little bit of an antihero, because her message sometimes gets lost in her delivery.”
In 2022 for Hurricane Mona, Mackie was the inaugural recipient of Touchstone Theatre’s David King Prize, which is awarded for the development of a new comedy production. She first began fleshing out the piece during the 2019-20 season as part of the Arts Club Theatre Company’s Emerging Playwrights’ Unit, and this spring, she worked on finalizing it during the 50th edition of the Banff Playwrights Lab.
Hurricane Mona. Photo by Emily Cooper
As both an actor and playwright, Mackie has built a name for herself using comedic relief to address important social and environmental topics. Take her 2016 theatre series “Lost Words” with Jeff Gladstone, which spotlights works throughout history about sex, religion, politics, and Canada that have been censored in different ways. In Hurricane Mona, Mackie employs humour to draw upon her own experiences as a young climate activist, addressing the environmental crisis without trying to guilt-trip audiences.
Comedy is a familiar realm for Gullason, who’s a member of The Improv Centre’s main-stage ensemble. The skills she’s learned through improv comedy have helped create an environment of collaboration and idea exchanging on set with Mackie and Surette.
“I think what improv does is it gives you permission to fail, and to put things out there, and just try a bunch of things and see what works and what doesn’t,” Gullason says. “It kind of releases any need for your ideas to be precious and perfect. It allows you to just experiment with all different kinds of offers, without feeling insecure.”
Diane Brown and Craig Erickson star as Mona’s boomer parents in the production, and Sherine Menes plays her reclusive Gen Z sibling, Jay. Raugi Yu, who starred in Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre’s comedy Bad Parent last year, rounds out the cast as a feisty human-sized talking frog. The show’s hilarity, says Gullason—from the relatability of tense family dynamics to a crazy mushroom trip—is what makes it so special.
“I think a lot of people deal with large catastrophes and tragedies with a little bit of humour,” Gullason says. “You have to be careful with the way that you deliver these shows, because a lot of people are tired. They’re just tired of, you know, everything that’s going on in the world, and this is on top of that. It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t know if I can handle more doom and gloom.’ But when you add humour, it just makes it more palatable, and easier to take in.”
Hurricane Mona has a few tricks up its sleeve that will surprise audiences—most notably, how set designer John Webber uses stage magic to bring a climate catastrophe into a living room.
While Gullason says she’s always had an interest in environmentalism that has led her to attend climate marches, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by the idea of the climate crisis. Hurricane Mona’s true genius lies in its prompting of subtle reflection, rather than imposing any blame on the audience about a subject that induces enough stress on its own.
“Truly, the show is not necessarily meant to be an educational piece of theatre,” Gullason says. “It’s really meant to entertain people, and for people to walk away having laughed and had a really good time. And if people also walk away with an idea that maybe they want to get involved a little bit more, or try a little bit harder, or make a few changes, then that’s great as well.”
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