MATRIATE, written by Tara Beagan and directed by Cheyenne Scott with dramaturgy by Brefny Caribou, is a short, powerful play centered on an Indigenous burial ground threatened by development. Bon, a worker who refuses to vacate the construction site, chooses instead to remain close to the uncovered burial of the Nlaka’pamux woman, Tshoolsh. As machinery approaches and pressure mounts, the play explores the intersection of land, loss, and agency revealing the deep spiritual bond between the living and the dead.

The only time estranged sisters Amina and Khadija see one another these days is in court, as opposing counsel for a case between Guyanese labourers and a Canadian oil corporation drilling offshore in Guyana. In MANY WATERS, written by UK playwright Sabrina Mahfouz and directed by Michelle Mohammed with dramaturgy by Keavy Lynch, the two feuding lawyers come together in sisterly love for their mother’s funeral and to travel to their estranged homeland, where grief becomes the catalyst for difficult conversations about inheritance, environmental responsibility, and the future.

Emaya is on a journey to meet her ancestors. In A RITUAL OF RETURN, created by American duo Ta-Nia (Talia Paulette Oliveras and Nia Farrell) and directed by Adonis Critter King with dramaturgy by Mya Wong, Emaya, struggling to imagine a future amid widespread loss, encounters her ancestral presences who offer hope and guidance and remind her of her own endurance, community, and possibility.