Factory Theatre is host to the second stop in the national tour of Tiny Bear Jaw’s I Don’t Even Miss You. A “dystopian pop “solo” show” of epic proportions, I Don’t Even Miss You is an exciting piece you won’t want to miss. I got to send Elena Belyea some questions about their new show, their inspiration, and what they’re looking forward to most about touring!

1. Could you please introduce yourself to my readers and talk a bit about your role(s) with I Don’t Even Miss You?

With pleasure! My name is Elena (or Eli) Belyea. I’m a queer and trans writer, actor, and producer from Edmonton (Treaty 6 Territory), Alberta. I’ve been making plays since high school (20 years– truly wild). I studied Playwriting at the National Theatre School, and my work has been produced across the country and internationally. I created I Don’t Even Miss You with my creative partner Tori Morrison, and together we run Tiny Bear Jaws (a little theatre company with teeth). This is our third national tour. 

Whenever we try to describe our roles on this show, it always winds up sounding like a bit of a joke. Technically, I’m the playwright, performer, one of the producers, and a co-creator of the show’s music. Tori is the sound/video designer, composer, co-music creator (we distinguish between the show’s pop songs and the composition, which was all Tori) and a co-producer. However, we collaborated closely on the songs, video, and sound design. (For example, I collected many videos over the past three years which Tori curated and edited into a cohesive projection design; scene titles were recorded in my handwriting, because we wanted everything to feel like the show’s protagonist Basil made it themself). Tori weighed in on the script and story in significant ways. The show is very much a labour of love, and example of our shared aesthetics and sensibilities. We’re also huge nerds when it comes to digital dramaturgy (a totally pretentious way of saying tech and onstage storytelling), which I think is pretty clear right from the show’s opening.

2. AI is definitely something that we hear about a lot in the media, usually with a sense of trepidation. Do you find yourself wary of AI, or has this project changed your opinion of it at all?

Definitely. We experimented with a variety of different AI technologies as research for this show, including chatbots, music/lyric generators, and automated voices. Over the course of the show, Basil describes creating their virtual assistant, Orchid, whose way of speaking was heavily influenced by my experiments with the AI chatbot Replika. These experiments allowed us to have a better understanding of what Orchid and Basil might be able to accomplish, given the tech and resources available to them. While there’s still a lot about especially recent AI developments that I don’t pretend to understand, I think like most technology, it can behave in positive or disastrously bad ways, depending on who wields it. As an artist, I find the discourse around labour (for example, using AI to make your show poster instead of hiring a designer, or film companies trying to create likenesses of actors which they can use indefinitely) and copyright (especially as it pertains to large language models) particularly interesting or terrifying, depending on the day. But I think there are also some exciting possibilities, especially when it comes to things like medical research, accessibility, and unhinged meme generation. 

3. I like the idea posed in your play about how much of our lives are performative, including our gender and other aspects of our identity. Could you please talk a bit about what inspired you to talk about this particular theme?

The premise of the play is that its protagonist, Basil, wakes up one day to discover everyone else on Earth has disappeared. I try not to say it too loudly (I definitely don’t think of it as a pandemic play), but I started writing it back during the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns. I was spending a lot of time grappling with the realization of how much of my self-worth and identity was defined by relationships with others. I started wondering: if I was alone; like actually, no other people anywhere, would I be the same person? This made me consider– without a community, can gender exist? If so, for what purpose? What about love? Sexuality? Even things like personality? If you consider yourself a funny person— funnier than who? In the absence of others, Basil sets out to define themself, their life, who they are and were, so there is a definitive archive, even if (or especially if) there winds up being no one else to remember them. (Against all odds, they hold out hope this won’t be the case).

4. I Don’t Even Miss You uses several media to tell this story. What’s it like getting to play and explore in all of these different ways with each performance?

So. Fun. Unbelievably so. When I perform the opening number (“Tonight”) I’m like, I can’t believe this is my life. Part of what took this show so long to make (five years!!!) is that Tori and I wanted to try a bunch of different mediums we’d never really tried before. I wanted to sing and dance, but didn’t have a ton of experience doing either outside of school. We wanted to create an digital/AI-sounding voice for Orchid— no idea how to make this happen. Even just the songs. I wanted pop music to feature prominently, but neither Tori and I had any experience creating a pop song from scratch, especially in collaboration with another person. The first song took us a full year to make. We each also had a number of different experiences which helped with figuring out what we didn’t know. (For example— Tori attended the CFC’s Slaight Family Music Lab where she trained as a composer for six months, and I acted in Verb Theatre’s production of Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die— another solo show with music, which was hugely impactful). Getting to see them all come together after years of development has been an incredible gift, especially because it’s only been possible thanks to the many offers from the dozens of other people who have contributed to the show in different ways (check the credits and you’ll know what I mean). We take a lot of pride in the show, because there’s no element of it that hasn’t been workshopped, and discussed, and dissected, and discarded, and back to the drawing board, and wait, what was that thing you made two years ago? No, not that one, that one, yes! Absolutely, yes, that’s it!

5. This production at Factory Theatre is just one stop on a larger tour, where else are you taking this play and what are you most looking forward to about touring?

Our first stop was in Ottawa, as part of the Fringe Festival’s Undercurrents festival (we had a great time!). After our stop at Factory, we’ll be heading to Calgary in January as part of One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo (co-presented by Verb Theatre, who is including the show as part of their 2024/2025 season). Touring is my favourite. I love meeting other artists, celebrating with my team, staying up too late, and learning how the show resonates differently with different audiences. So many plays get one just run, then sit on the shelf forever, waiting for another production. I feel extraordinarily lucky to get to share this show and Basil’s story, again and again, with audiences across the country. 

I want to thank Elena for taking the time to so beautifully answer my questions! I Don’t Even Miss You runs from October 31 to November 10 at Factory Theatre! For more information and tickets, visit: I Don’t Even Miss You — Factory Theatre

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