About the Play:

Skydive is a full-length drama by Kevin Kerr. This two-hander explores the world of dreams and imagination: the universal human desire to push beyond our physical limitations and to fly. It follows two brothers in crisis and in mid flight, tumbling through the air in an ill-fated sky dive. Through a series of dream-like flashbacks we uncover the brothers’ shared struggle.

Skydive concerns two very different brothers. Having grown apart after a traumatic and defining moment in their youth, two brothers reconnect to fulfill a life-long ambition to go skydiving. Morgan (a feckless schemer who has recently reinvented himself as a counsellor) arrives on the doorstep of Daniel (a housebound agoraphobe), offering to help "liberate" his brother by administering his newly invented technique of "Paratherapy." Convincing Daniel to face his fears by pursuing their long abandoned childhood dream of jumping from an airplane, the brothers begin a series of misguided training exercises to prepare for their adventure. Yet we realize that something is being subverted as we watch the comedy rooted in a lighthearted nostalgia for their youth in the 1980s give way to a high-stakes adventure in a surreal environment of lucid dreams and startling visions occurring in the final seconds of a freefall adventure gone horribly wrong. Commissioned by Realwheels, a Vancouver-based theatre company that aims to increase audiences' understanding of the disability experience, Skydive was created to be performed by one able-bodied, and one differently-abled actor.

Skydive premiered in 2007 and played to packed houses at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre in Vancouver during the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Since then it has played to over 30,000 people at theatres across Canada.

Cast: 2 men

What people say:

"Skydive into the giddy realms of really innovative theatre." — Vancouver Sun

"Packs a punch guaranteed to elicit a standing ovation." — Montreal Gazette

About the Playwright:

Kevin Kerr is an award-winning Canadian playwright, director, actor, and founding member of Vancouver's Electric Company Theatre. While he was Writer in Residence at Touchstone Theatre, he developed Unity (1918), which earned him the Governor General's Literary Award for Drama. He is the recipient of four Jessie Richardson Awards for Outstanding Original Play, and his work has been produced across Canada, in the U.S., France, Australia, and the U.K.