No Save Points

“A Play You Can Play”

An Outside the March Production
Presented by Starvox Entertainment
In association with Modern Times Stage Company
With support from Hilltop Studios and BMO Lab

June 6 – July 2
“Playtest” preview performances June 6-11
Lighthouse ArtSpace 1 Yonge St.

This June, creator/performer Sébastien Heins invites you to a joyous, high-octane, deeply personal adventure story, all experienced at the touch of a button. Video games, theatre and memoir collide as Heins places the control(er) in the hands of the audience, entrusting them to pilot his performance using state-of-the-art motion capture and haptic technology. 

Intimate and innovative, the piece is inspired by the real-life story of Heins’ mother being diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease, a rare genetic illness. No Save Points is crafted for gamers and theatre-lovers alike, and explores the universal question: “what do we do with the time that we have?” 

How It Works

No Save Points is propelled by Heins’ virtuosic performance as he becomes a video game character before our very eyes. A select group of audience members will sit onstage in the “Player’s Pen” where they’ll use a wireless controller to direct Heins’ actions by sending signals to receivers located on his body. 

Later in the show, dozens more patrons will get to take their turn playing on the buttons, and by the end of the evening, the entirewhole audience will take control of the performance. Throughout it all, they will help our hero negotiate medieval court intrigue, save citizens as a caped crusader, side-scroll across a mysterious island and, ultimately, find himself anew on the dark side of the moon. 

So bring your A-B game.

Runtime: 2 hours and 15 minutes including an intermission.

Tickets

No Save Points opens June 13th for a limited engagement, with select “Playtest Performances” available as of June 6th. Tickets are on sale for performances through June 25th. Artsworker/Under 30 tickets are available.

Limited $20 “BFF Seating” is also available. Remember staying up all night playing video games in your best friend’s basement? Re-live the feeling with our accessibly-priced BFF (“Basement-Feel Floor”) seats. These spots are front row on comfy cushions. Seats are extremely limited, with just eight available per performance. If for whatever reason you can’t sit on the ground, you may want to opt for one of our other seating options.

If the cost of tickets is a financial barrier to experiencing No Save Points, please email OtM’s Managing Producer, Katherine Devlin Rosenfeld ( katherine@outsidethemarch.ca ) to add your name to our Pay it Forward $0 ticket list, and we will do our best to accommodate you!

Playtest Performances

Experience No Save Points before anyone else! This is a playable theatre experience, similar to a video game—and video games go through rounds of “beta” testing before they officially launch. So be a part of our Playtest Performance audiences and get the unique chance to help fine tune the experience before the show officially opens, meet the artists, and offer feedback.  

Pay It Forward Program

Give the gift of immersive performance! Inspired by the “caffè sospeso” (Italian for “suspended coffee”): a coffee paid for in advance as an anonymous act of charity. Money raised through our Pay it Forward program helps to make sure that everyone can access live performance, regardless of their financial situation. Every dollar raised in the campaign goes directly to subsidizing free tickets to those who need it. 

VIP Tickets

Book a VIP ticket and get access to:

Reserved seats
Complimentary drink
Poster signed by Sébastien Heins
Laminate souvenir
Complimentary coat check

Accessibility + FAQ

The show deals with themes of illness. There is a limited amount of mature language throughout the performance.

For more about the show, including access and venue information, click on this link. 

The Huntington’s Society of Canada

Throughout the run, No Save Points will be raising funds for the Huntington’s Society of Canada, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for those affected by the fatal hereditary brain disorder, by facilitating support services, providing access to educational resources, increasing awareness, advocacy, and investing in research.

About The Team

A veteran and audience-favourite of the Toronto theatre scene since his debut at age 10 in Julie Taymore’s The Lion King, Heins has spent three seasons as a performer at the Stratford Festival, and played leading roles for Soulpepper, Factory Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times, Theatre Passe Muraille and Canadian Stage. His previous award-winning solo show Brotherhood: The Hip-Hopera has toured festivals around the world, from New York City to Mumbai.

Heins is the Associate Artistic Director and a founding member of Outside the March, one of Canada’s leading immersive theatre companies. Since 2010, OtM has premiered more than two dozen landmark and innovative productions including Trojan Girls, Lessons in Temperament, The Tape Escape, Dr. Silver, TomorrowLoveTM and the international pandemic phenomenon The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries. OtM is led by multi-Dora Award winning Artistic Director Mitchell Cushman, who co-directs No Save Points in collaboration with Heins. 

The show’s series of distinct playable worlds have each been co-conceived by a different acclaimed cross-disciplinary creator: Damien Atkins, Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, Rouvan Silogix, Aylwin Lo and Kemi King, with dramaturgical support from Dora award-winning playwright Rosamund Small.

Full crediting below. 

Read the press release here.