Burning Mom

A retired suburban wife and mother tragically loses her partner after forty-five years together. So what does she do? The only thing that makes any sense at all. She embarks on her own hero’s journey. A road trip to the middle of the Nevada desert in a twenty-six-foot-long RV.

Based on the experiences of playwright Mieko Ouchi’s mother, Dorothy Ouchi, this irreverent one-woman play tosses us into the passenger seat and takes us on a voyage through the process of grief and the search for meaning and onto the madcap playa of the world’s largest free-form creative gathering as Dorothy discovers the power of art, community, Walmart, and MOOP and the courage to jump back into the deep end of life.

AUTHOR

Mieko Ouchi

Mieko is a playwright, actor, and director working in theatre, film, and television. Her plays, which include The Red Priest (Eight Ways To Say Goodbye), The Blue Light, The Dada Play, and Nisei Blue, have been nominated for several awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and the City of Edmonton Book Prize. Mieko has also been the recipient of both the Carol Bolt Award and the Enbridge playRites Award for an Established Canadian Playwright. Her plays have been produced across Canada and the US and are translated into French, Russian, Czech, and Japanese. Mieko is co-founder and current Artistic Director of Concrete Theatre, a nationally recognized twenty-six-year-old TYA touring company. She is currently working on four new projects: Makepeace, Burning Mom, Consent, and Mariam with Amena Shehab. She lives and works in Edmonton.

Reviews

“This is one of the most uplifting plays I’ve come across. Funny, smart, and heartbreakingly honest, the play is about loss, about the kind of grief that can swallow you whole, about the fear you will never be able to face life again, but ultimately it’s about reinvention and courage. And the incredible thing is IT’S ALL TRUE! Dorothy Ouchi is a role model for us all.”

“Burning Mom shows why Mieko Ouchi is one of Canada’s best playwrights. A hilarious, touching roller-coaster ride through grief, joy, and all the hills, drops, and turns in between.”

“One of the most heartbreaking and original plays I’ve read in a very long time. Ouchi is one of Canada’s finest writers and her virtuosity is on full display here.”