Just in time for Pride, Oasis Love returns to Toronto as part of Buddies In Bad Times Theatre’s QueerPride line-up! After a relationship gone bad, writer and performer Johnny Salib (Calpurnia, RAID: Operation SOAP) has teamed up with director/dramaturge extraordinaire Franny McCabe-Bennett (SMASHES! at We’re Funny That Way Comedy Festival in Toronto and the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival), for a remount of one of Sisyphean Productions most successful shows. This final remount of Oasis Love will leave audiences touched, moved and inspired by our universal confusion surrounding love.

“As we head into Pride month, it’s hard not to feel conflicted about enjoying our biggest celebration of the year, when so many of our brothers and sisters continue to be subjected to physical and emotional violence,” says Johnny Salib about the current LGBT narrative, “while shootings and serial killings have the capacity to rob us of our right to feel free, it’s merely a reflection of where our culture is in it’s collective quest for love and acceptance.”

Part drama, comedy, and musical, Oasis Love follows the journey of Damien, a love-stricken boy as he navigates himself through his first relationship. Along the way Damien finds himself battling to find his place within the manipulation from his boyfriend and the delusions caused by his good intentions. Through music and monologues, Damien shares the rise and fall of his relationship with his closest friends, the audience. While the show resonates with anyone who’s fallen in love or had a traumatic break-up, Franny adds that “there is also a unique perspective as the child of immigrants and that journey of coming out, reaching out to your community, finding and building new support systems. Queer people of colour face additional systemic barriers and by sharing this story at Pride, we are doing what we can to elevate and amplify some of these experiences… especially now, when so many queer people of colour have been lost or silenced. Oasis Love is a rebellion and a protest simply by existing and I am so proud and thankful it does.”

Oasis Love is a unique opportunity to take a break from the Pride hustle and connect back into community, comedy, music and of course, love.

OASIS LOVE
JUNE 16, 8:00pm
Buddies In Bad Times Theatre

TICKETS
$20 GENERAL ADMISSION: http://buddiesinbadtimes.com/show/oasis-love/
$30 RESERVED SEATING: https://www.gofundme.com/OasisLove

About the Author

Raymond Helkio is an author, director filmmaker, and graduate of Ontario College of Art & Design. He currently lives in both Toronto and New York. His most recent play, LEDUC, is now available in paperback. www.raymondhelkio.com