Factory Tneatre opened the season last night with The Waltz by Marie Beath Badian in a production by Nina Lee Aquino. It’s a one acter that’s partly a sort of classic “coming of age” story and, rather more, about what identity and belonging mean in Canada today. Our two characters are Bea Klassen (played by Ericka Leobrera); sixteen years old, part filipina, part Scandawegian growing up in Saskatchewan; currently on her own at a remote cottage armed with a crossbow, and RJ Alvarez (played by Anthony Perpuse); second generation filipino, clever and nerdy, has lived all his life in Scarborough but is off to UBC to be as far as possible from his family. He has made a diversion from his trip to meet someone from his mother’s past who is somehow connected to Bea but that character never shows up.
