In the vast, unnamed metropolis of Hello … Hello, art and commerce have finally and completely conjoined; stylish cafés serve up zebra mussels and the air is thick with a gentle rain of sparrows plummeting down from the mirrored office towers. Everywhere, people are falling for an edgy new fashion accessory: a shiny ball filled with poison that hangs from a delicate chain.

In this oddly peaceful world, Cassandra, a salesgirlat a clothing store called the Abyss, meets a charismatic ad man named Ben in the graveyard where she is mourning her lover, the last true artist on earth. They find themselves helplessly attracted to one another. Ben walks Cassandra home and invites her out to dinner, which leads to sex, marriage and a house in Semi-Residentia. Then comes baby. All one and a half inches of her.

Hello … Hello, nominated for several Dora awards, including Best Play and Best Musical, is a tragic, comedic and curiously erotic attack on western society’s predilection for escapist consumerism and entertainment. If the boy-meets-girl musical is the shiny happy ball, then the content of the play, and its characters, are the poison held within.

‘[Hines is] one of the most original artists in the city.’

– Toronto Life

Karen Hines is the author of Crawlspace, All the Little Animals I Have Eaten, Drama: Pilot Episode, Hello... Hello (A Romantic Satire) and The Pochsy Plays – all published by Coach House Books. Her plays and productions have been presented internationally and have won many production and literary nominations and awards including twice being finalist for the Governor General's Award for Drama. A Second City alumna, Karen has also appeared in numerous television and film productions and is the award-winning director of cult horror clowns Mump & Smoot. She lives in Calgary.

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