HUFF 2017

A Native Earth Performing Arts Production

by Cliff Cardinal

Huff premiered at Aki Studio as part of Native Earth’s 2015 season. In 2016, Huff had an enormously successful nine-city national tour, followed by an international tour in 2017 to Australia and England, with an additional stop in Manitoba.Two-time winner and four-time nominee for the Dora Mavor Moore Awards, Native Earth’s production of Cliff Cardinal’s Huff is back in Toronto this October!

Returning to the city this fall, Native Earth’s production of Huff was shown at Soulpepper Theatre from Oct 16 to 28 in partnership with former Artistic Director Ryan Cunningham’s Cunning Concepts & Creation. For more details.

Director & Dramaturge Karin Randoja
Playwright & Performer Cliff Cardinal
Set & Costume Designer Jackie Chau
Lighting Designer Michelle Ramsay
Sound Designer Alex Williams
Stage Manager Jennifer Stobart
Production Manager Pip Bradford

Click here for the full production history.


“Huff, is arresting, confronting, and oddly comedic”
– The AU Review


AWARDS

Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Performance by a Male (Cliff Cardinal)

NOMINATIONS

Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Production (Huff); Outstanding Lighting Design (Michelle Ramsay);
2016 Quebec Critics’ Award

SELECT REVIEWS

N N N N
“…strong, uncompromising storytelling”
NOW Magazine

4 Stars
“To call this play heartbreaking would be an understatement.”
Torontoist

4 Stars
“Cardinal is an artist to watch”
– Stage Door

3 stars
“Unflinching solo show…will take your breath away”
Globe and Mail

SYNOPSIS

Nominated for Quebec’s 2016 Critic’s Awards, Huff is the wrenching, yet darkly comic tale of Wind and his brothers, caught in a torrent of solvent abuse and struggling to cope with the death of their mother.

Wind’s fantastic dream world bleeds into his haunting reality, as he’s preyed on by the Trickster through the hallways at school, the abandoned motel he loves more than home, and his own fragile psyche.

With his signature biting humour and raw, vivid imagery, Cardinal expertly portrays over a dozen characters in his captivating solo performance.

Winner of the 2015 RBC Tarragon Emerging Playwright Prize;  Winner of 2012 Buddies in Bad Times Vanguard Award for Risk & Innovation.

Huff was developed, in part, through The Collaborations, an initiative of Canada’s National Arts Centre English Theatre.

The development of Huff was also supported by VideoCabaret.


“Soon the trickster preyed on him in his dreams.”

Photos by akipari


Playwright & Performer – Cliff Cardinal

Cliff Cardinal’s first play Stitch debuted in SummerWorks 2011, winning Theatre Passe Muraille’s Emerging Artist Award. For Huff, he won the Buddies in Bad Times Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation at SummerWorks and two Dora Mavor Moore awards in the Independent Category (Outstanding Performance – Male; Outstanding New Play.)  Maria Gets A New Life, debuted at SummerWorks 2013. “This captivating tale of an off-grid mother solidifies Cardinal as one of the most talented and intriguing writers in the country.” –NOW Magazine.  Cliff graduated from the playwriting program at the National Theatre School of Canada. His music project: Cliff Cardinal and The Skylarks recently released their debut album: This Is Not A Mistake.