Play REDEVELOPMENT

FALLING IN TIME

 
 
 
 
 

Written by:
C. E. Gatchalian

One of the most controversial and uncompromising Canadian plays in recent memory, C. E. Gatchalian's Falling In Time is an epic exploration of armed conflict, masculinity, sexuality, love, and forgiveness.

Set in Vancouver in 1994, the year of the death of North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung, the play criss-crosses two hemispheres and spans more than forty years. Through all this, four distinctly different lives intertwine. Steve is an aging, outrageous, bisexual Korean War vet who embodies the sadistic tendencies of Western imperialism that polite society has too often tried to sweep from view. Jamie is an aloof, repressed ESL teacher haunted by a troubled childhood. Chang Hyun is a young Korean student brimming with anti-Western sentiment and still reeling from a traumatic experience in the military. In the middle of it all is Eun Ha, a woman who lives through the Korean War and, against all odds, finds the will to survive.

A brutally honest depiction of war, rape, racism and animal sexuality, Falling In Time asks the question, “How do we let go?”

C. E. teamed up with Toronto’s Factory Theatre, Peter Hinton-Davis, Maki Yi, and Tender Container to crack open and redevelop this play over 2020-22.

ReDEVELOPMENT:

Redeveloped over 2020-22 with the financial support of:

  • Canada Council for the Arts

  • Tender Container

  • Factory Theatre

Redeveloped through in-person workshop presentation with:

  • Factory Theatre

Originally produced in Vancouver in 2011 and published in 2012, Falling In Time was described as brave, and ahead of its time.

In 2011, the terms “intersectionality” and “toxic masculinity” were not in broad use, nor were the conceptual frameworks in place to think about or discuss these issues. Falling In Time’s candid, often brutal discussions of race and sexual identity were virtually unprecedented in Canadian and Vancouver theatre. A decade later, this play’s exploration of toxic masculinity and queer male sexuality are even more relevant than they were in 2011.

Tender Container is proud to have supported C.E. Gatchalian in working with Factory Theatre, Peter Hinton-Davis, and Maki Yi over 2020-22, and looks forward to seeing future productions of this redeveloped play.