TBD

Abstract

TBD is a multidisciplinary theatre event presented in Vancouver, BC, in 2015 and 2016. The project uses the Tibetan Book of the Dead as a structural anchor and guide to the audience’s sensual and emotional experience, exploring notions of death and dying, living in the present moment, avoiding distraction, and non-attachment. The first iteration involved 50 audience members, the following year that number was expanded to 100. TBD spans twenty-one days, with each audience member receiving a different kind of engagement each day, primarily in the form of audio or video podcasts or text messages delivered to their smartphones. Their phones also carried a family-location app that allowed Radix performers to locate them in public. Other events included four site-specific performances on specific days, home visits, items dropped at their doorstep, or posters placed in their neighbourhood. After an introductory day at the local cemetery’s communal hall, the audience’s experience begins with a podcast asking them to imagine that they have died and that Radix performers will be acting like their guides through the afterlife to their possible rebirth. In this sense the title offers a double meaning, the acronym suggesting both “To Be Determined” and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Many audience members expressed profound experiences over the course of the event, with equal enthusiasm shared by the performers who each had compelling stories about their interactions. The Radix Collective refers to TBD as “internal theatre” because participants framed their experiences through the unique lens of their own personal lives, without divulging what they were going through. The impact of the production varied for each audience member, depending on their point of view and willingness to engage with the work.