Pith at Fire Exit theatre travels through grief without leaving the living room
Posted May 8, 2026 11:50 am.
A Calgary stage production is taking audiences from the theatre back to the living room.
Pith, produced by Fire Exit Theatre, takes audiences on a journey through places such as New Orleans, Panama, and even the Amazon, on a quest to address grief.
Virginia is a woman who has spent the last ten years frozen in grief after her husband mysteriously disappeared. Unable to move forward, she remains isolated in her home, holding onto hope that he might still return.
Stephanie Alexandre plays Nancy Kimball, Virginia’s housekeeper, someone who has also lived a small, contained life, but is beginning to feel the pull of something more.
“She’s like, okay, I think there’s more to life, and there’s more to this world.”
And then Jack enters the scene, an itinerant sailor who brings with him a worldly perspective to the others. Jack guides the women on an imaginary adventure to travel through grief with highs, and lows.
“I think sometimes we think of grief, like grief can’t go together with humor, but that’s just not the human experience. We have to be able to feel all of our emotions.”
Pith runs until May 10th at the Engineered Air Theatre in the Werklund Centre. It is 90 minutes long.
