I Don’t Even Miss You brings Elena Belyea’s national tour back to Edmonton

Elena Belyea in Tiny Bear Jaws’ I Don’t Even Miss You, which runs in Edmonton through Oct. 11.

Photo credit: Brianne Jang


Elena Belyea’s I Don’t Even Miss You is back in Edmonton four years after it appeared in RISER Edmonton, returning as the fourth stop on a national tour that has since taken the work to Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary. The Tiny Bear Jaws production runs through Oct. 11 at the Studio Theatre in the Fringe Theatre Arts Barns, presented by Common Ground Arts Society.

Belyea writes and performs the 75-minute solo show, which centres on Basil, a non-binary computer programmer living through a near-future disaster in which everyone they love has disappeared. Left with an artificial-intelligence assistant named Orchid, Basil eventually turns to music and stages an autobiographical synth-pop concert about the people who are gone.

The production is billed by Tiny Bear Jaws as a “dystopian pop concert,” and its form helps explain why the touring history is more useful than a simple list of dates. Original electropop music, projections, home video and iPhone footage carry parts of Basil’s story alongside Belyea’s live performance, while Vanessa Sabourin supplies the recorded voice of Orchid.

From RISER Edmonton to a national tour

I Don’t Even Miss You was developed through RISER Edmonton in 2022, the local edition of a producing model run by Common Ground Arts Society. The current touring production remains a Tiny Bear Jaws project, with Emma Tibaldo directing and serving as dramaturge.

The show played Ottawa in February 2024 before moving to Factory Theatre in Toronto from Oct. 31 to Nov. 10 that year. It reached Calgary’s High Performance Rodeo from Jan. 15–18, 2025, where the engagement was identified as the third tour stop. Tiny Bear Jaws and Common Ground both bill Edmonton as the fourth.

No later Canadian engagement is currently announced on Tiny Bear Jaws’ live listings. Edmonton can therefore be described as the latest announced stop, although the available direct sources do not establish it as the definitive end of the tour.

Belyea, who was born and raised in Edmonton, returns with many of the collaborators who built the production. Tibaldo directs and dramaturgs, while Tori Morrison is credited with sound and video design, composition, music co-creation and producing. The touring team also includes choreographer Gianna Vacirca, set designer Even Gilchrist, lighting designer Whittyn Jason and associate producer and captions designer-operator Mac Brock.

What Edmonton audiences will see

With Belyea as the only live performer, the production uses recorded voice, projected material, personal video and original music to populate Basil’s otherwise emptied world. Common Ground describes it as a one-person show with music and projections, while Tiny Bear Jaws’ “dystopian pop concert” description points to the original songs and concert framework built into the piece.

That combination has travelled with the show through different Canadian theatre settings while keeping the central performance intact. Edmonton audiences are seeing a work that was developed locally, then presented elsewhere for more than two years before returning to the city.

Remaining Edmonton performances

I Don’t Even Miss You continues at the Studio Theatre in the Fringe Theatre Arts Barns, 10330 84 Ave. NW, through Oct. 11. Remaining performances are scheduled for Oct. 7, 8, 9 and 10 at 8 p.m., with the closing performance Oct. 11 at 2 p.m. Common Ground lists the production as 14A and approximately 75 minutes long.

The Oct. 7 performance includes ASL interpretation by Jenni Stevens. Common Ground Arts Society is the live source for ticketing and any schedule changes during the remainder of the Edmonton run.


Shara Cooper MA, MFA

Shara Cooper is a writer, editor and independent publisher based in Edmonton, Alberta. She is the founder of Nordic Prairie Life and SCENE 49 and publishes The Boundary Sentinel, an independent news publication serving British Columbia’s Boundary region. Her work spans journalism, essays, culture, history and community storytelling, and her writing has appeared in various publications including the Toronto Star.

https://www.sharacooper.ca
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