By Meghan Power
Last year Roommate Art Company received funding from Calgary Arts Development (CADA) to produce an original play called, Home, co-written by Sophia Garcia and Saeid Asgarian. Receiving funding was essential to being able to produce this play, make it accessible to audiences, and to be able to compensate all the artists and production crews who made it a success. On a more personal level, for Saeid, being able to qualify for a grant was an opportunity that has not been readily available to him in the past. “I was so grateful to learn about CADA’s funding through a friend. It’s expensive to produce a live show—the set designs, costumes, paying the actors and the production team, and even the venue rental. We wouldn’t have been able to afford to produce “Home”, as we envisioned it, without the support of this grant.” This was Saeid’s first official project with Roommate as artistic director.
Home is a dark comedy tackling intersectional themes of identity, justice and colonization. It’s the story of a woman whose house is invaded by a family seeking to prove their claim to her home. The main character tries to get help from the police, and then from her landlord, but is unable to find anyone who can help her prove the home is hers.
Inspired by the works of Franz Kafka and Bertolt Brecht, Sophia and Saeid used absurdism and Brechtian theatrical techniques to intentionally create distance between each scene in order to hold the audience’s attention—to give space and ask audiences to pause and think more deeply about the story and how it might relate to their own personal experiences.
“Sophia and I felt strongly about creating a work of art that explores conversations around these themes of displacement, immigration, colonialism, and how our society is thinking about ‘home’ and sharing. We wanted to validate the lived experiences of people who have been colonized in our society. We also wanted to honour and acknowledge the history of violence these people have experienced, here, in Canada.” Based on his own lived immigrant experience, Saeid (originally from Iran), was thinking a lot about how society continues to displace indigenous people from their homes on every continent.
“We believe that regardless of background or culture, everyone deserves a seat at the table of storytelling. The world is often fragmented by differences, but we see our stage as a space where strangers become companions, and where shared narratives pave the way for empathy and connection. Just like roommates in a shared home, we embark on this journey together, striving to weave a tapestry of experiences that transcends boundaries and enriches lives.”