No Save Points
toronto, 2023
An Outside the March Production, presented by Starvox Entertainment, in association with Modern Times Stage Company, with support from Hilltop Studios and BMO Lab
About the show
In June 2023, creator/performer Sébastien Heins invited you to a joyous, high-octane, deeply personal adventure story, all experienced at the touch of a button. Video games, theatre and memoir collide as Heins places the control(er) in the hands of the audience, entrusting them to pilot his performance using state-of-the-art motion capture and haptic technology.
Intimate and innovative, the piece is inspired by the real-life story of Heins’ mother being diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease, a rare genetic illness. No Save Points is crafted for gamers and theatre-lovers alike, and explores the universal question: “what do we do with the time that we have?”
How it works
No Save Points is propelled by Heins’ virtuosic performance as he becomes a video game character before our very eyes. A select group of audience members will sit onstage in the “Player’s Pen” where they’ll use a wireless controller to direct Heins’ actions by sending signals to receivers located on his body.
Later in the show, dozens more patrons will get to take their turn playing on the buttons, and by the end of the evening, the entirewhole audience will take control of the performance. Throughout it all, they will help our hero negotiate medieval court intrigue, save citizens as a caped crusader, side-scroll across a mysterious island and, ultimately, find himself anew on the dark side of the moon.
About Sébastien Heins
A veteran and audience-favourite of the Toronto theatre scene since his debut at age 10 in Julie Taymore’s The Lion King, Heins has spent three seasons as a performer at the Stratford Festival, and played leading roles for Soulpepper, Factory Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times, Theatre Passe Muraille and Canadian Stage. His previous award-winning solo show Brotherhood: The Hip-Hopera has toured festivals around the world, from New York City to Mumbai.
Heins is the Associate Artistic Director and a founding member of Outside the March, one of Canada’s leading immersive theatre companies. Since 2010, OtM has premiered more than two dozen landmark and innovative productions including Trojan Girls, Lessons in Temperament, The Tape Escape, Dr. Silver, TomorrowLoveTM and the international pandemic phenomenon The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries. OtM is led by multi-Dora Award winning Artistic Director Mitchell Cushman, who co-directs No Save Points in collaboration with Heins.
About Modern Times
Modern Times Stage creates original Canadian art, reimagines classic work, and adapts plays in different languages and contexts to bring holistic and innovative forms to our contemporary and diverse Toronto audiences. We are committed to exploring, imagining and creating exciting, radical, performing arts in Toronto, while empowering voices that have been historically and presently marginalized – focusing on artists who have immigrated or sought asylum in Canada.
Modern Times is the only Toronto-based Theatre company that prioritizes empowering immigrants, newcomers and refugees as part of our core mandate.
Stage Team:
Rouvan SIlogix
Artistic Director
Steph Crothers
Artistic Producer & Company Manager
Honey Hoseiny
Apprentice
Natasha Anwar
Marketing Associate
Gia Nahmens
Bookkeeper