Description

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You can call him Cockroach, or Roach for short. He's a catnip-smoking city slicker living in the dark corners behind the toilet. After diving into the diaper of a Chinese baby, Cockroach watches the boy grow up to lose his sense of identity. Understanding what it means to live in a world not built for outsiders, he attempts to help the boy reclaim his culture. But when the Bard himself makes a surprise appearance in hopes of influencing the boy with the "superior" English language, Cockroach finds himself caught in a collision of linguistics, longing, and lobsters (who sometimes burp).

A unique exploration of xenophobia and the dangers of language erosion, cockroach (曱甴) is a coming-of-age play about the stories we tell ourselves to comfort, to survive, to resist, to overcome, and to be.

About the Author

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Jeff Ho is a theatre artist, originally from Hong Kong. As an actor, he has toured as Ophelia in Why Not Theatre's Prince Hamlet across Canada and the US for over five years. As a playwright, his works include cockroach (曱甴), Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land), Antigone: 方, and trace. Jeff is a recipient of the LAMBDA Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Drama, Toronto Theatre Critics' Award for Best New Canadian Play, the Jon Kaplan Legacy Fund Award, has been a finalist for the Playwright's Guild of Canada Drama Award and the Governor General's Literary Award, and has been nominated for four Dora Mavor Moore Awards. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and currently lives in Toronto.