Ritual Music to Cure a Lover (2022)

April 21st, 22nd, 23rd 2022 | 8pm, 8pm, 4pm
Great Canadian Theatre Company - Ottawa, ON

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Ritual Music to Cure a Lover is the story of forbidden love, a family divided by long-held secrets, and a community trying to find balance between traditional ways and the modern world. The play culminates in a Zaar/Exorcism ceremony, intended to rid a young man of the “sickness” of his love for an outcast woman, that ultimately reveals a father’s long-buried secrets.

The show immerses audiences in the heat and passion of an isolated fishing village on the shores of the Persian Gulf, where rituals, music and family relations shape people’s lives from birth to death. A modern-day love story rooted in ancient Iranian myths, it is a transformative storytelling experience.

Reviews

Mooney on Theatre – Deanne Kearney

“As the one-man performer, Sayadi is able to bring an entire world filled with different characters, as he simply and seamlessly shifts between them…”

The Way I See It Theatre Blog – Amanda Campbell

“… he is especially compelling as the female characters (which is so rarely the case for a male actor). He grounds both women in the play in respect and finds such simple and nuanced ways to shift between the characters.”

Elissa Barnard

“It’s amazing what one man can do with cloth, music and light.”

“… an enchantment of light and music with the basic pain of human experience.”

Eric Abramian

“… (Ritual) is instilling hope for a better future where the new generation can live peacefully without the judgment and ill intentions of their predecessors.

“… reminding (us)  a new future, without the freedom to think differently from the status quo, is perhaps more dangerous.