Read the performance between Friday, May 15 and Sunday, May 17 on Twitter

About the project

Yara is pregnant and alone in the woods. She wants a new life, a safe life, and for that Yara must contend with the truth about all that she’s leaving behind — and, perhaps, reveal why she’s running. A story of survival, resistance, and defiance, many words for no is a portrait of a young woman’s attempt to escape a world intent on taking what is hers. many words for no is a monologue told, piecemeal, through a series of live tweets over three days beginning on May 15th, 2020 and ending on May 17th, 2020. 

Using the twitter hashtag #manywordsforno, follow Yara as she documents her time in the woods, waiting like many of us, and sharing it all on a platform preoccupied with “what’s happening”.

As a playwright with an ambivalent attitude towards social media, the artists finds that lately she is drawn to Twitter’s economy and its role as the place where we gather when all other forms of community are denied us. A twitter play seems unlikely as it is not a format that encourages deep attention yet the challenge of creating something durational that requires engagement but, through its fragmentary nature, also demands very little commitment seems a fitting way to share stories in this time. The playwright holds the hope that until we can all gather around a stage once again, this account of a particular character, following her instincts and emotions in a troubling time, can find an audience on a platform efficiently designed for sharing such stories.

This project received financial support from the National Theatre School of Canada via the Art Apart program, an emergency fund for emerging artists who are affected by physical distancing due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

About the artist

Intisar Awisse is a playwright and editor currently based in Waterloo, Ontario. Her plays include Blackbird, Thing, and Painting the Sea. Intisar is the Playwright-in-Residence at Green Light Arts for 2019-2020  and has developed work with theatre companies such as Obsidian Theatre and Nightwood Theatre. Currently, she is developing her play (m)otherhood, a new work that explores the intersections between surveillance culture, black survivalism, and parenting.