Crawlspace

Created and Performed by Karen Hines

“Imagine moving into the cutest little coach house ever, only to discover a string of hidden defects that drain your life savings and threaten to ruin your life.”

CRAWLSPACE is a highly visceral and wildly theatrical experience. A darkly comedic, cautionary tale about the brutal battleground of real estate, decorative twig orbs and the state of the human soul. It filters real estate through the lens of Antonin Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty to come up with this hybrid: Theatre of Realty.

CRAWLSPACE is inspired by creator and performer Karen Hines’ true story of buying a fully detached ‘condo alternative’ in a hip downtown Toronto neighbourhood in the heated market of 2006 . . . and then having it all go horribly, nightmarishly wrong. Join the Host (Hines) in a dreamy re-incarnation of the hellish little house as she entertains her guests Scheherazade-style – except instead of language steeped in poetry, history and philosophy, this play will offer floor plans, cut-lines from MLS real estate one-sheets, and erotic incantations inspired by Pottery Barn catalogues.

Nominated for Five Dora Mavor Moore Awards including Best Play and Best Production
Finalist for the Playwrights Guild of Canada Carol Bolt Award for Best New Play
Named one of the Globe & Mail’s top ten productions of 2017

Karen Hines

Creator & Performer

Karen Hines’ multi-prize-winning plays, productions, performances combine such disparate elements as magical realism, pink-brand feminism and environmental disarray. Karen is a two- time finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Drama and a 2020 finalist for the Siminovitch Prize. Her solo plays and ‘little’ films featuring her character ‘Pochsy’ have traveled the globe. Hines has directed and collaborated with fellow artists at venues such as One Yellow Rabbit, Joe’s Pub (Public Theatre), Astor Place Off-Broadway, Tarragon, Videofag, Canadian Stage, Soulpepper, NAC, and has created original works for Boca del Lupo. Her All the Little Animals I Have Eaten was translated for Jamais Lu 2022 (Mishka Lavigne), and the real estate horror Crawlspace continues to micro-theatres across Canada in French and English. Hines is a Gemini and Dora Award-winning performer. Her solo Crawlspace is being adapted as screenplay, and is now a CBC podcast (PlayMe; Radio One). Her newest show Pochsy IV premiered in January 2023 (High Performance Rodeo) and will soon tour to multiple cities.

Karen Hines
Creator & Performer

Sherry J Yoon

Tour Director

Sherry J. Yoon, Artistic Director of Boca del Lupo, is a theatre creator and director with a passion for creating new performances through collaborative pursuits. With Boca del Lupo, Sherry has co-created more than 35 productions, including: Fall Away Home, an intergenerational site-specific production in the forest of Stanley Park; Photog, a large-scale show that toured across Canada and was created with interviews from prominent conflict photographers; and You Are It, as part of the Silver commissions from the Arts Club Theatre that investigates the complex dynamics between female friendships. During Sherry’s tenure, the company has received numerous awards, including the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award, and Jessie Awards for Outstanding Production, Design, Actor, Ensemble, as well as the Critic’s Choice Innovation Award. Her productions have toured festivals and venues across Canada, Europe and Mexico.  She co-created an online exhibition of Expedition, an iterative collaboration between Boca del Lupo and the Performance Corporation, and working on Net Zero, an interactive theatre installation about climate change that involves the audience charging a battery with a stationary bicycle. She is also a freelance director who has worked at the Richmond Gateway Theatre, Bard on the Beach, the Vancouver International Children’s Festival and at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa Canada.

Sherry J Yoon
Tour Director

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