Long-distance relationships are not uncommon in Whitehorse, and the concept of being separated from your partner by thousands of kilometres is the basis of Gloria Mok’s immersive - and completely sold-out — play Long-Distance Relationships for Mythical Times.
The play is being staged at L’Association Franco-Yukonnaise in downtown Whitehorse from March 21 to 23. Each audience is capped at 15 people — and instead of a stage, Mok will perform the play around a dinner table, as audience members dine on veggie dumplings, bitter melon and almond cookies. The play is being presented by Nakai Theatre.
Mok and her partner met while they were students in Montreal: now, Mok lives in her hometown of Mississauga and works in Toronto, while her partner lives in his hometown of Whitehorse. They’ve been dating for nearly seven years, she told the News on March 13.
The play is not a traditional stage performance: it blends three tales at once into an ode to long-distance love. While one of the narratives focuses on Mok’s own love story, the others include a Chinese myth called Cowherd and Weaver-Girl and Mok’s own parents’ love story. The myth is about a forbidden love between a mortal and goddess, who are only allowed to meet once per year.
Mok’s parents, on the other hand, were separated by an entire ocean when her father left Hong Kong a few years before her mother.
“So because phone calls, long-distance phone calls were really expensive back then, you know, there wasn't email or easy ways to communicate like we have now,” said Mok. “So what they used to do is, they would send each other their cassette tapes back and forth, of recordings, of like what was happening in their lives.”
Mok said her father claims he’s thrown them away — an assertion she’s not buying — so different recordings of her interviewing her parents in Cantonese are featured in the performance.
Mok describes the performance as one that should feel like a party in a friend’s dining room.
“So you're sort of invited as dinner guests to this show. I sit at the head of the table and I tell you these stories and we share food. There are moments where audience members are invited to participate if they want in conversations, and obviously to eat along with me,” she said.
Mok herself will be making the food — she has a food safety license, and will be using a commercial kitchen to cook.
Most of the recipes she uses are those passed down from her mother.
The show was initially conceived when Mok was working with 2B Theatre, based out of Halifax, during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The theatre’s artistic director, Christian Barry, prompted Mok adapt a myth, legend or folktale into a play that could be performed by one performer at a table.
“Because of the pandemic, I think we were all seeking connection in small groups at the time, and because I, at that point, when I got the residency, it was late summer of 2020, and I hadn't seen my partner for six months, which is the longest time we had been apart,” said Mok.
She said she saw connections between her own love life, and the late-summer festival that celebrates a meeting between the forbidden lovers of Cowherd and Weaver Girl.
The show has been performed in Halifax and Toronto, as well as Parrsboro in Nova Scotia. This performance will be its Whitehorse debut.
Now, Mok visits her partner in Whitehorse often. She said both Whitehorse and Toronto inform her art.
“I've found up here in Whitehorse, it's very peaceful and serene, and there's such a great sense of community here,” said Mok.
“I find that sometimes coming up here is is a nice retreat from the busyness of Toronto, and so I found that it's kind of impacted the way that I now make art in Toronto,” said Mok.
Long Distance Relationships for Mythical Times will be performed at the Association Franco-Yukonnaise March 21, 22 and 23. All performances are currently sold-out.
Contact Talar Stockton at talar.stockton@yukon-news.com
