Lasa Ng Imperyo
Adapted and Performed by Carmela Sison
In a surprising fusion of theatre and gastronomy, this adaptation of A Taste of Empire reimagines Jovanni Sy’s acclaimed play about the effects of global imperialism on how we produce, prepare and consume food. Presented in Tagalog with English surtitles, the performance guides audiences across the layered history of Philippine cultural heritage through a live cooking demonstration.
This new version brings a fresh female perspective to the piece by replacing the original Sous-Chef Jovanni with the witty and intrepid Sous-Chef Mela. Her task? To cook rellenong bangus, or stuffed milkfish, a dish whose intricate preparation process takes its roots from the country’s culinary traditions and colonial past.
As the dish is brought to life, so too are the stories embedded within its ingredients. Sous-Chef Mela’s insights connect the flavors and techniques to broader themes around globalization, cultural identity and resource exploitation, inviting viewers to consider how the global food market continues to be shaped by imperialist legacies.
Lasa Ng Imperyo performs as part of the Micro Performance Series, co-presented with the PuSh Festival.
Performance Times:
- 7:00pm, January 30
- 6:00pm, January 31
- 7:00pm, February 4
- 7:00pm, February 5
- 7:00pm, February 6
- 2:00pm, February 8
Performances at The NEST 1398 Cartwright St. Vancouver BC
Creative Team
Carmela Sison
Carmela is a Filipina-Canadian artist privileged to live and work on the traditional, ancestral, and unsurrendered lands of the Coast Salish peoples of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
She is a graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting program and has worked with many companies in Western Canada including The Arts Club Theatre, Bard on the Beach, Western Canada Theatre, Concrete Theatre, and Theatre Calgary as well an numerous film and tv projects. She is also working on a Tagalog translation and adaptation of Jovanni Sy’s A Taste of Empire with Nina Lee Aquino as dramaturg. She and Jovanni also participated in the Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac, Quebec in June 2019.
Jovanni Sy
Jovanni is a director, playwright, and actor. Originally from Toronto, he moved to the Lower Mainland in 2012 and was the Artistic Director of Gateway Theatre for seven seasons.
His plays include A Taste of Empire, Nine Dragons (Jessie Award), and The Five Vengeances (which he will direct with Affair of Honor). Jovanni is currently writing a new play for Vertigo Theatre and co-writing Salesman in China with Leanna Brodie (Stratford Festival/Banff/PTC).
This fall, Jovanni will start a new adventure as an MFA candidate at the University of Calgary.
Marcus Youssef
Marcus’ fifteen or so plays include King Arthur’s Night, Winners and Losers, Jabber, Ali and Ali and the aXes of Evil, Adrift and A Line in the Sand. They have been produced in 20 countries across North America, Europe and Asia. Marcus is the recipient of the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre, the Chalmer’s Canadian Play Award and the Rio-Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award, among others. He is currently Senior Artist at Neworld Theatre, International Artistic Associate at Farnham Maltings in the UK, an artistic advisor to the National Arts Centre English Theatre and playwright in residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto.
Co-Presented with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Boca del Lupo’s History with Lasa Ng Imperyo
Sherry and I met Jovanni Sy decades ago around the time that he created A Taste of Empire and was performing it at the iconic St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. He was the AD at Cahoots Theatre at the time and we met at a national conference of some kind… I can’t remember what the conference was about, but I remember we had an immediate affinity for each other’s work. Fast forward to 2012 when Jovanni was named AD at the Gateway Theatre in Richmond – Sherry and I invited Leanna and Jovanni to our house and before the meal was over, we were scheming to find a way to bring A Taste of Empire back to life for Vancouver audiences. Over the next few years, we presented the A Taste of Empire four times due to its popularity, ingenuity and insight; on Granville Island, at UBC Farms, at the Liu Institute for Global Issues and at the Gateway Theatre. We brought Pedro Chamale onto to those productions as a production assistant and to perform the walk on roll of The Assistant. It was great to see Jovanni and Pedro’s chemistry and it was exciting to see Rice and Beans work with the Gateway Theatre to produce Derek Chan’s Cantonese translation of the project for Richmond audiences. We lent some set pieces and tech to that production but it was a few years later still that the project emerged into our sphere again here at Boca del Lupo.
Carmela Sison was working with us at the time as our Communications Associate and through a series of lateral associations Carmela pulled together this fantastic group of collaborators including Nina Lee Aquino who I was sitting on the PACT board with at the time. We were thrilled to be able to support Carmela, Nina and Jovanni’s vision for this iteration of A Taste of Empire through our SLaM Program, bringing it home and grounding it in the language and culture of the Philippines. And now coming full circle, it is with great pleasure that we partner with PuSh to present this Rice and Beans production (Pedro and Derek’s company) of Carmela’s reimagined version of A Taste of Empire: Lasa Ng Imperyo.
Jay Dodge, Co-Artistic Director, Boca del Lupo
Lasa Ng Imperyo is supported by
