One of B.C.’s largest theatre festivals — Vancouver Fringe Festival — is back for the 2023 season.
This year, a first-time playwright from Burnaby, Karter Masuhara, will be presenting their play at this long-standing theatre tradition.
Masuhara’s play, Before They Cut Down Our Tree, a coming-of-age story explores themes of friendship, loss, and identity
In a conversation with the NOW, the queer playwright said the play was inspired from their own experience in life: an unexpected invitation to a long-lost friend’s bridal shower left Masuhara confronting the reality that they did not know this person anymore.
“I think part of that experience was realizing the heartbreak that can come with broken friendships,” Masuhara said. “And wanting to explore what would it be like if you could go back to your friends that were no longer friends.”
Aside from exploring themes of broken friendships and reunion, the play also delves into the intersections of the Asian diaspora experience, queer identity, and femmehood, the press release said.
“I wanted to see that Asian representation on stage because I feel mainstream plays don't have a lot of representation quite yet, especially in Canada,” they added. “It's very close to my heart … and also, as a queer person, I wanted to include a bit of queer representation as well.”
For the first-time playwright, who goes back to school in the United Kingdom at Leeds Beckett University in the fall said they would like for viewers to reflect on their own kind of friendships — the ones people had and would love to reignite the friendships — and have a good time.
Vancouver Fringe Festival 2023 runs from Sept. 7 to 17, and tickets can be brought from the website once they go on sale in August.
