In February 1969, hundreds of students occupied a computer centre at what is now Montréal’s Concordia University to protest the mismanagement of a racism complaint lodged by Caribbean students against their biology professor. When an agreement to end the occupation fell through, riot police were called in, resulting in widespread damage, a mysterious fire, and nearly a hundred arrests. Created and devised by some of Montréal’s most prolific artists, Blackout re-examines the events that led to the occupation and protests, asking how race relations have changed in Québec and Canada.

Tamara Brown is an award-winning multidisciplinary performing artist and creator based in Montreal who acts, sings, directs, and writes poetry for both the stage and screen. An occasional educator and perpetual student with a love for storytelling, natural sciences and the environment, alchemy, geekery, harmony, and social justice, Tamara is one of the founding members of Metachroma Theatre, created to address the under-representation of IBPOC artists in Quebec and Canadian theatre since 2010. In 2019, Tamara wrote Blackout for Tableau D’Hote Theatre with Lydie Dubuisson and Kym Dominique-Ferguson. Her work as a director has been seen on stages in Montreal, Toronto, Sherbrooke, Winnipeg, New York, and Stratford.

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Kym Dominique-Ferguson is a poet by birth, a theatre performer and filmmaker by training, and a producer by nurture. For over a decade he has serenaded Montreal and international audiences with his blend of spoken-word poetry and theatre. He successfully produced and performed his first one-man show to a sold-out audience back in August of 2015: The Born Jamhaitianadian. Ferguson has also been a radio host on Soul Perspectives, CKUT 90.3FM, since 2012, a show that talks about the issues affecting the Black community in Montreal, across Canada, and internationally. He is honoured to be working on the development for his first play, The #DearBlackMan Project, officially commissioned by Black Theatre Workshop.

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Lydie Dubuisson is a playwright, director, and curator from Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal. She studied theatre and graduated with distinction from Concordia University. Her work examines intersectionality, dystopian reality, collective memory, and multilingual creative processes. Dubuisson wrote Quiet/Silence (2018 Discovery Series, Black Theatre Workshop and Maison de la culture NDG), Sanctuary/Sanctuaire (Black Theatre Workshop and Théâtre aux Écuries), and Sharing Our Stories, Telling Our Lives (Teesri Duniya Theatre). She is currently writing a play about the Shelburne riots.

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Mathieu Murphy-Perron is an award-winning producer, playwright, and director. He is the co-founding artistic director of Tableau D’Hôte Theatre. He served as co-idéateur of all the company’s projects, alongside co-founder and former artistic director Mike Payette, from 2005–2016, before moving forward with his singular vision for the company after Payette’s departure. Playwrighting credits include Journey to Exodus, Return to Sender, PrAgression, Blackout, and En Pointe, an episodic bilingual series of 20+ short street plays staged since the pandemic. His directorial aesthetic is heavily focused on heightened movement, physical humour, ensemble work, and imagery of collectiveness, resistance, and defiance.

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Rodney Diverlus is a Haitian Canadian multi-hyphenate artist and artivist whose work samples from dance, theatre, media, and public-arts-based interventions. They are co-founder of the Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism, Black Lives Matter—Canada, Black Lives Matter—Toronto, and was previously Lead Canadian Organizer for the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. They choreographed the premiere production of Blackout.

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Rodney John is one of the original students who brought charges against Professor Perry Anderson back in 1968. He is retired from working as a psychologist and a mediator, and currently he lives in Toronto.

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Nantali Indongo is the host of The Bridge, an arts and cultural program on CBC Radio One. Building her craft as an artist with Montreal rap group Nomadic Massive for seventeen years, she remains a solo emcee and vocalist known as Tali Taliwah. Nantali is the daughter of Viola Aduke Daniel and Omowale Indongo, formerly Kennedy Frederick.

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“It is an education, an ambitious portrait of fury and a really fun, triumphant work of art.”

Sarah Deshaies, Cult MTL

“Blackout is a work that isn’t afraid to be political, or to take sides, or to make difficult calls.”

Tara McGowan-Ross, BroadwayWorld