Burning Mom by Mieko Ouchi

Playwrights Canada Press


Regular price $13.99
Burning Mom by Mieko Ouchi

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A retired suburban wife and mother tragically loses her partner after forty-five years together. So what does she do? The only thing that makes any sense at all. She embarks on her own hero’s journey. A road trip to the middle of the Nevada desert in a twenty-six-foot-long RV.

Based on the experiences of playwright Mieko Ouchi’s mother, Dorothy Ouchi, this irreverent one-woman play tosses us into the passenger seat and takes us on a voyage through the process of grief and the search for meaning and onto the madcap playa of the world’s largest free-form creative gathering as Dorothy discovers the power of art, community, Walmart, and MOOP and the courage to jump back into the deep end of life.

Cast size: 1 female role

"One of the most heartbreaking and original plays I’ve read in a very long time. Ouchi is one of Canada’s finest writers and her virtuosity is on full display here."
- David Yee, author of carried away on the crest of a wave and Artistic Director of fu-GEN Theatre


"This is one of the most uplifting plays I’ve come across. Funny, smart, and heartbreakingly honest, the play is about loss, about the kind of grief that can swallow you whole, about the fear you will never be able to face life again, but ultimately it’s about reinvention and courage. And the incredible thing is IT’S ALL TRUE! Dorothy Ouchi is a role model for us all."
- Kelly Thornton, Artistic Director of the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

"Burning Mom shows why Mieko Ouchi is one of Canada's best playwrights. A
hilarious, touching roller-coaster ride through grief, joy, and all the
hills, drops, and turns in between."
- Vern Thiessen, Governor General's Literary Award–winning author of Einstein's Gift and Bluebirds