About the Play:

Redbone Coonhound is a full-length drama by Amy Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton. When Mike and Marissa – an interracial couple living in Vancouver – meet a dog with a problematic breed name, Redbone Coonhound, it unleashes a cascading debate between them and with their friends about race and their relationships.

Redbone Coonhound is a satire about systemic racism in the past, present and future. Out for a walk in their Vancouver neighbourhood, interracial couple Mike and Marissa run into a white couple walking their dog. When they learn that the breed of hunting dog is called Redbone Coonhound, Mike goes berserk. He can't believe that such a name, containing two racial slurs, as he explains, can just be taken for granted. This detail unleashes a cascading debate between them about race and their relationship that manifests as a series of micro-plays, each satirizing contemporary perspectives on modern culture. Through hard-hitting comedic elements, Redbone Coonhound explores the intricacies of race, systemic power, and privilege in remarkable and surprising ways.

Redbone Coonhound is the Arts Club's first Rolling World Premiere; after its initial run in 2022 in Vancouver on the Newmont Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre, the play had a second premiere in Toronto and Montreal shared by Tarragon Theatre and Imago Theatre.

Cast: 1 Black female, 2 White female, 2 Black male, 2 White male

What people say:

"...a searing mosaic of what it's like to be Black in North America. The funniness of the play can't be overstated: Redbone Coonhound swings hard, and ... hits its targets ... This is how comedy is done." — Intermission

"The dialogue is blisteringly clever ... of impressive quality and powerful satirical impact." — Toronto Star

"Lavoie and Newton (an interracial couple themselves) have crafted a work that's a bit of a theatrical canine, too – by turns playful and vicious as it digs deep into the divisiveness of today's identity politics." — The Globe and Mail (Critic's Pick)

"Quick-paced, brilliantly funny and lacerating." — Vancouver Sun

"The most fun you'll have this year confronting terrible and terribly pervasive truths." — Stir

About the Playwright:

Amy Lee Lavoie is an award-winning Canadian playwright and a graduate of the esteemed National Theatre School of Canada's Playwriting Program. She has collaborated on plays with her playwright husband Omari Newton. Redbone Coonhound was their first co-write as a married couple.

Omari Newton is an award-winning Canadian actor, voice actor, writer, director, and a senior instructor at The Vancouver Film School. He often co-writes with his wife, playwright Amy Lee Lavoie.