What interests you? Not just your hobbies or what you watch on TV, what genuinely sparks your excitement and imagination? According to Richard Foreman’s notebooks, he wasn’t interested in much by the end of his life, and he wasn’t afraid to talk about it either. You Must Change Your Life, created and directed by Ilana Khanin, is an experimental, existential piece of theatre which uses the musings from Foreman’s notebooks to create a stirring new work.

“I’m talking my way out of unhappiness”

Can you really talk your way out of being unhappy? How do you search for that one idea that seems tantalizingly out of reach? You Must Change Your Life asks these questions and more via the writings of Richard Foreman. Before his death in 2025, Foreman made his personal notebooks available online for free, in hopes that they’d be used to create art. And so there is a central figure, our narrator of sorts, who is desperately trying to find a sense of joy and intrigue in their life. However, even when their consciousness is invaded by others, the ideas don’t seem to come. It’s not until they step far beyond their comfort zone that they find a new path into the light; an ending which will hopefully beget a new beginning.

I get the sense that these reflections of Foreman’s were happening towards the end of his life; they have a decided self-pitying feel to them, although whose diary entries don’t, right? Especially if you found yourself disenchanted with life and knowing it was likely to end soon. Yet Khanin has arranged them to create in interesting story, though one which lacks explication for some of its parts. While it’s easy to see how the initial character we meet, and the second one to appear are to be two sides of the same coin (the two actors could practically be twins), we’re never fully introduced to nor told the need for the presence of the other four performers. They’re essentially costumed stage hands, moving things on and off the bare stage with the occasional line or two. While I’m all for keeping a hint of mystery and magic to a piece, a little bit of exposition or explanation is warranted in this case.

However, what I enjoyed quite a bit about this piece is how, like most absurdist tragedies, the play starts over again at the ending, but with a twist. Works like The Bald Soprano or Waiting for Godot use a similar structure to imply that things will likely remain the same, but there’s always some small change, and who knows what effect that’ll have on this next attempt at things.

To see the full extent of the Alumnae Theatre stage, all the way to its back wall, was jarring at first, yet it accurately reflects the emptiness which the character is feeling. The use of light and dark in this production is especially insightful and has a great impact in how the characters are seen and how they’re able to move on stage.

Annie Hoeg and Thea Mae Hesler play the two main characters. I particularly enjoyed the moment where they move entire in sync; it’s expertly choreographed and they’re clearly able to give the right signals to each other without us noticing. Their passionate performances keep you engaged from start to finish. Golshan Alaei, Katie Crompton, Mika Deneige, and Chris Holtkamp are the aforementioned four who round out this cast. Their looming occupation of the stage was rather eerie, but their efficiency in creating the worlds for Hoeg and Hesler to inhabit is like an intricate dance in and of itself.

“NO MORE FEAR!”

The booming God-like voice which interrupts the character’s monologue carries the most important message of You Must Change Your Life: “No more fear”. This is a lesson which I am actively trying to implement in my own life, to be free of the fears which hold me back. It’s actually amazing how much fear can rule our lives, and we don’t even realize it. But as Foreman had to do when faced with the ultimate unknown, we need to overcome that fear, open the door, and step through to the next adventure.

You Must Change Your Life runs in the Alumnae Theatre Mainspace until June 21. For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.youmustchange.ca/

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Cover Photo: Annie Hoeg and Thea Mae Hesler. Photo by Drew Berry.

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