The Amazing Chase Canada
by Keshia Palm
About the play
Paciencia is dying. Rather than stay in bed in small-town Saskatchewan, she enlists her big-city daughter Grace to compete in her favourite high-stakes, reality TV game show The Amazing Chase Canada. Cultural, generational, and political differences clash as they race across Canada, and against the clock — all captured by Jo the camera operator to the glee of the show’s producers. Can they come together to win, or will the game tear them apart?
The Amazing Chase Canada uses the structure and format of binge-worthy game shows to expose the insidious rewriting of Canada’s history, and the hidden truths we keep from our families and ourselves. Spanning 5 provinces and 1 territory, the play digs into pressure points between intergenerational + multiracial families, rural + urban communities, conservative + liberal leanings. The play asks brown, immigrant women: What does it take to win?
This is a production of cinematic theatre. Projections play a huge role in the storytelling — opening a window into the perspective of Jo, and the capitalist and colonialist powers shaping the world of the game.
10 minute excerpt of The Amazing Chase Canada. Developed over 2 days in Theatre Passe Muraille Bob Nasmith Backspace with support from Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts, December 2023.
Watch the December 2023 Text Workshop Full Readthru
Featuring Colin Doyle as Host, Rosie Simon as Producer, Durae McFarlane as Jo, Ericka Leobrera as Grace, and Karen Ancheta as Paciencia. Jasmine Chen reads stage directions.
Development History
December 2023: Technical Workshop
A 3-day exploration of projection, movement, sound and set design possibilities in Theatre Passe Muraille Bob Nasmith Backspace supported by the Canadian Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council. Direction by Jasmine Chen + Miquelon Rodriguez, Production Management by Laura Philipps, Projections by April Leung, Set by Jawon Kang, Sound by Miquelon Rodriguez, Produced by Emma Westray + Keshia Palm. Featuring Karen Ancheta, Durae McFarlane + Keshia Palm. Photography by Eden Graham pictured above. View the full gallery here
December 2023: Dramaturgical Workshop
3-day text workshop lead by dramaturg Jeff Ho with early experimentations with camera, supported by the Canadian Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council. . Direction by Jasmine Chen + Miquelon Rodriguez, featuring actors Rosie Simon, Karen Ancheta, Durae McFarlane, Colin Doyle, and Ericka Leobrera
August 2023: Dramaturgical Workshop + Design Jam
Dramaturgical workshop followed by a design jam building towards December 2023 technical explorations, supported by the Canadian Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council. . Co-directed by Jasmine Chen and Miquelon Rodriguez, featuring actors Michael Wamara, Tony Perpuse, Ericka Leobrera, Carolyn Fe, and Josette Jorge
September 2022-August 2023: Writing + Development
Period of writing and development supported by Outside the March, Tarragon Theatre, and Studio 180 Theatre via the Ontario Arts Council Recommender Grant for Theatre Creators Program
September 2021: Hot House Digital Reading
Shared a 30 minute excerpt of the script via Zoom for the culmination of Cahoots Hot House Playwrights Unit
September 2020-2021: Writing + Development
Initial development supported through the Cahoots Theatre Hot House Program, co-facilitated and dramaturged by Wallis Caldoza + Jordan Jordan Laffrenier
“Sometimes I feel my daughter and I are living in two different worlds. She moves through hers and I see her, she is almost here, almost with me, but I
cannot reach her.”
– Paciencia
“We can do whatever possible to win. That’s the game. Nothing is off limits.”
– Grace
Technical Requirements + Producing Considerations
3 performers
91-page script (current iteration)
Minimum 3 projectors
Minimum 1 live-camera
Show computer supporting Isadora with live cam
2 lav mics
2 wireless mics
multiple modular projection surfaces
multiple levels or areas for staging
some potential use of water and cooking on stage