About the Play:

Winner of the 2015 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama

carried away on the crest of a wave is a full-length drama by David Yee. In a series of vignettes, the play illustrates the ripple effect of one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history and ponders what happens when the events that tie us together are the same events that tear us apart.

From the shore of Ko Phi Phi in Thailand to a suburb in Utah to a mysterious Kafkaesque hole in the ground, carried away on the crest of a wave gives us brief glimpses into the lives of a sphinx-like escort, a grieving father, a conflicted priest, brothers of legend, a felonious housewife, an accountant of time, an orphaned boy, a radio shock jock and a man who finds things. Each are connected, primarily, by the cataclysmic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed the lives of over a quarter million people. In a series of vignettes, carried away on the crest of a wave illustrates the ripple effect of one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history and ponders what happens when the events that bind us together are the same events that tear us apart.

carried away on the crest of a wave premiered in 2013 at the Tarragon Theatre Mainspace in Toronto, Ontario.

Cast: 4 women, 16 men, 1 boy (alternate casting 1 woman, 5 men, 1 boy with doubling)

What people say:

"David Yee's carried away on the crest of a wave is a play to make the stars sing. Full of indelible imagery and fresh, powerful language, it gives a human face to an almost unimaginably huge catastrophe and leaves us with a boundless sense of hope. To read it is to be moved." — Jury Statement from the 2015 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama

About the Playwright:

David Yee is a Canadian playwright and actor, born and raised in Toronto, and proudly identifies himself as a Hapa of Scottish and Chinese descent. He is currently the co-founding Artistic Director of fu-GEN Theatre Company and a playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre. A Dora Mavor Moore Award nominated actor and playwright, his work has been produced internationally and at home. His published work includes: carried away on the crest of a wave, paper SERIES and lady in the red dress. He is a Governor General's Literary Award laureate, for English Language Drama, receiving the award in 2015 for carried away on the crest of a wave.