From the shore of Ko Phi Phi in Thailand to a suburb in Utah to a mysterious Kafkaesque hole in the ground, carried away on the crest of a wave gives us brief glimpses into the lives of a sphinx-like escort, a grieving father, a conflicted priest, brothers of legend, a felonious housewife, an accountant of time, an orphaned boy, a radio shock jock and a man who finds things. Each are connected, primarily, by the cataclysmic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed the lives of over a quarter million people. In a series of vignettes, carried away on the crest of a wave illustrates the ripple effect of one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history and ponders what happens when the events that bind us together are the same events that tear us apart.

David Yee is a mixed-race (half Chinese, half Scottish) actor and playwright, born and raised in Toronto. He is the co-founding artistic director of fu-GEN Theatre Company, Canada’s premiere professional Asian Canadian theatre company. A Dora Mavor Moore Award–nominated actor and playwright, his work has been produced internationally and at home. He is a two-time Governor General’s Literary Award nominee for his plays lady in the red dress and carried away on the crest of a wave, which won the award in 2015 along with the Carol Bolt Award in 2013. He has worked extensively in the Asian Canadian community as an artist, advocate and community leader. He has been called many things, but prefers “outlaw poet” to them all.

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• Winner, Governor General's Literary Award for Drama
• Winner, Carol Bolt Award

"Each character deals with their own personal loss and devastation very differently, and their grief is manifested in unique ways, which is very powerful." —Victoria Bégin, Theatromania

"Thought-provoking." —Celia Wren, Washington Post