From the glittering high-rise condos to the desperate streets of Vancouver, powerful stories told by women reveal the fraying social fabric among the wealthy and hangers-on in the city’s Asian Canadian community.

Lady Sunrise introduces us to six women who are risking everything, all motivated by the need for more money and the freedom it could buy, whether it’s the allure of expensive items and real estate to substitute what’s been lost or the safety of not being in abusive debt to anyone else just to survive. This heartbreaking examination of the effects of today’s hyper-consumerist society will challenge perspectives of strength and power, exposing painfully raw consequences.

Marjorie Chan was born in Toronto to Hong Kong immigrants who arrived in the late ’60s. As a theatre and opera artist, she works variously as a writer, director, and dramaturge, as well as in the intersection of these forms and roles. Her work has been seen and performed in the United States, Scotland, Hong Kong, Russia, and across Canada. Her full-length works as a playwright include the plays The Madness of the Square, a nanking winter, Tails From the City, as well as libretti for the operas Sanctuary Song, The Lesson of Da Ji, M’dea Undone, and, most recently, The Monkiest King. Some of the companies Marjorie has directed for include Gateway Theatre, Cahoots Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, Theatre Passe Muraille, Obsidian Theatre, and Theatre du Pif (Hong Kong). Marjorie has been nominated for nine Dora Mavor Moore Awards and won four. She has also received the K.M. Hunter Artist Award in Theatre, the My Entertainment World Award for Best New Work, a Harold Award, as well as the George Luscombe Mentorship Award. Other notable nominations include the John Hirsch Director’s Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award for her playwriting debut, China Doll, and the Canadian Citizen Award for her work with Crossing Gibraltar, Cahoots Theatre’s program for newcomers. She is also Artistic Director of Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto.

Marjorie Chan's profile page

Nina Lee Aquino is an award-winning director and dramaturge. She is the current Artistic Director of Factory Theatre. She is the editor of Canada’s first Asian-Canadian two-volume drama anthology Love + Relasianships and the co-editor of the award-winning New Essays on Canadian Theatre Volume One: Asian Canadian Theatre. Nina co-wrote Miss Orient(ed) and her monologues have been published in Beyond the Pale and She Speaks. Awards for her directorial work include: the Canada Council John Hirsch Prize 2008 and two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Direction. She is an honorary member of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research.

Nina Lee Aquino's profile page

• Nominated, Governor General's Literary Award

“Its reluctance to sugarcoat harsh realities will leave audiences stinging from the engrossing narratives.”

Samantha Edwards, NOW Magazine

“It was beautiful and tragic and left me breathless.”

Isabella O’Brien, Mooney on Theatre

“Seeing stories of strong and complex Asian-Canadian women on stage (or any other ethnic group, for that matter) is way overdue. What really stands out for me about Lady Sunrise is seeing all these women working together in telling these stories. They are finally able to control the narrative and bring these stories to life.”

Heidy M., Hye’s Musings