Adam Francis Proulx brings How to Hug a Porcupine home for Algoma Fall Festival workshop

Official Algoma Fall Festival image for How to Hug a Porcupine, Adam Francis Proulx’s new Canadian theatrical comedy being presented in workshop form in Sault Ste. Marie on Oct. 16.

Photo credit: Algoma Fall Festival

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Sault Ste. Marie theatre artist Adam Francis Proulx is bringing a project nearly a decade in development back to his hometown for the Algoma Fall Festival. How to Hug a Porcupine, a new Canadian theatrical comedy combining puppetry, live video and multimedia storytelling, will receive a free workshop presentation on Oct. 16, 2026 at the Sault Community Theatre Centre.

The festival describes the piece as a work in development, an important distinction for a show that has already gone through several workshop stages. Proulx created the work, with Byron Laviolette directing and serving as dramaturge. According to the festival, the current presentation also incorporates integrated ASL for hearing and d/Deaf audiences.

The story centres on a contemporary puppeteer recruited to animate what appears to be a 1954 Canadian government educational presentation about porcupines. From there, Proulx works with the “porcupine dilemma,” the idea associated with philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer that people seek closeness even though proximity can also leave them vulnerable to hurting one another. The theatrical version approaches that tension through comedy, puppetry and live video.

Proulx’s company, Pucking Fuppets, traces the project back to 2017, when he wrote the play. A development workshop followed at Wychwood Barns Theatre in Toronto in 2018. In 2021, another workshop was developed virtually with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, and that process became a short film. The company’s current project page still lists How to Hug a Porcupine as in development.

For the Algoma Fall Festival, that history gives the workshop a distinctly local angle. Proulx is from Sault Ste. Marie, and the hometown presentation gives local audiences a look at a Canadian work that has moved between live theatre and film during its development. The workshop begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Sault Community Theatre Centre; admission is free, with general admission seating.

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