• Age: 13 to 18
• Grade: 8 to 12

The Breakfast Club meets Shirley Jackson in a fusion of live theatre and technology that tells a darkly comic but hopeful story of four teenage outsiders struggling with death, depression and the shadow of a black dog.

Two is fraught. While dealing with the impossible expectations of her parents, she is trying to understand why her brother, a bright and talented teenager, has taken his own life. It’s not until a fateful school detention that she meets three other students who all seem as lost as she is. There’s Three, a quiet, misunderstood guy who doesn’t quite know how to care for himself; Four, the fashionable, popular kid and class clown; and Five, a rebel ready to fight against everyone and everything. Despite their differences, they each grapple with depression and anxiety and become an unlikely source of comfort to one another. As the four unite to battle teachers, parents, therapists and their own demons, their promising futures begin to reveal themselves.

Born in a meteor crater, Matthew Heiti holds a BFA in Acting from Ryerson University and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of New Brunswick. His plays have been workshopped and produced at theatres and festivals across Canada. Matthew runs the Playwrights’ Junction at the Sudbury Theatre Centre, a workshop for developing writers; and he serves as playwright-in-residence with Pat the Dog Theatre Creation where he coordinates PlaySmelter, the region’s festival of new play development. He is a Genie-nominated screenwriter and his first novel, The City Still Breathing, is published by Coach House Books. Matthew was named one of CBC’s Writers to Watch in 2014. He lives in Sudbury.

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