
805-4821
805-4821 is a trans coming out story made out of other stories: a dialogue from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a half-remembered swim lesson, and an 80,000-word Facebook correspondence. 805-4821 explores memory, identity, and love in an age of apocalypse. Not all men are men. Welcome to the movies!
Initially conceived for an overhead projector, We Quit Theatre transformed 805-4821 into a live-typed digital performance for Google Docs during the Covid-19 pandemic. In either iteration, 805-4821 exists in playful tension with many forms, including theatre, expanded cinema, and auto-fiction, exploring childhood trauma, transition, depersonalization, psychoanalysis, and action movies. The performance has been translated into French by poet and translator Zoe Labrinakos-Raymond. Both versions of the performance are available for touring in either language. Both versions of 805-4821 also tour with live audio description by Gislina Patterson and are functionally subtitled due to the textual nature of the show.
SHOW DETAILS:
60 minutes // Available for touring // ideal for experimental theatre, expanded cinema, literary, or gallery contexts
REVIEWS:
“5/5 stars. Writer/performer Dasha Plett reveals their coming out story in a staggeringly insightful and poetic ‘text performance.’ … The result, directed by Gislina Patterson, is a beautiful articulation of the kinds of experiences we’re only starting to find language for.” ~ NOW Magazine
“805-4821 is a confessional. It is a work about how sacred and how messy humans are. It is a queer auto biopic that transcends all the conventional boundaries. The film is an inward spiral. It presents its themes loosely and then addresses them over and over in ever-tightening circles until we understand the core of Plett’s story.” ~ Mooney on Theatre
“805-4821 redresses both ‘real’ and imagined temporalities, ripe for revision and rewriting, and pursues queer futures that embrace the imaginable multitudes found in the interstice of to be and not to be.” ~ Peripheral Review
“We Quit Theatre presented an evocative interrogation of gender identity on a google doc, with the audience reading along as the text was typed live. After the show the doc was left open, and a lively discussion ensued between the audience and the creators.” ~ The Irish Times
PRESENTATION AND DEVELOPMENT HISTORY:
2024 – Buddies in Bad Times (overhead projector, Toronto)
2022 – Buddies in Bad Times (google docs, Toronto)
2021 – PushOFF (google docs, Vancouver)
2021 – Catapulte (google docs, Ottawa)
2020 – OFFTA (google docs, Montreal)
2019 – SummerWorks Festival (overhead projector, Toronto)
2019 – MAWA (overhead projector, Winnipeg)
2018 – aceartinc. (overhead projector, Winnipeg)