The Leon & Thea Koerner
Foundation

Jessica Whey is 17.  She lives with her lawyer father and her new step-mother. She is smart, ambitious, creative and still hurting from the death of her mother. And now she has a boy friend, 18 year old Nash, who only wants to be with her. With her father out of town, Jessica allows Nash to try out Dad’s new high powered sports car. What begins as a romantic evening ends in tragedy, as the two argue over their future together and in the blink of an eye a life is lost.

SPEED unfolds a mystery as Police Officer Mina Young interrogates Jessica about the report she filed claiming her father’s car had been stolen. Using a soundtrack mixed live, SPEED mixes stage action with film footage to spin a vibrant energy that looks at not only fast cars but our seemingly unending quest to make everything around us happen faster.

With more and more teenagers involved in high speed collisions in communities across the country, SPEED is a way to get youth talking about slowing down and making responsible choices.

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Touring: Granville Island Stage & Surrey Arts Centre, May 2006

Feedback and Reviews

SPEED rockets along with such energy that its message can simply be absorbed through the senses. The script by Jamie Norris has a keen ear for the fast and furious sound of modern youth, Patrick McDonald's direction helps accelerate that momentum and the show's design is overwhelmingly aimed at attracting youthful attention. ... Best of all, SPEED also delivers a sharp story that's well-acted...Paterson and Petten are simply superb in their clear, believable performances.

It also unfolds like an episode from a TV drama, from an opening 'grabber' followed by flashy credits and a story told in flashback. But the narrative and multimedia tricks are not only for a good cause - they service a story that is smart not only about the fast and furious but, surprisingly, about love as well.

The three leads are excellent, though Paterson deserves extra kudos for the emotional shifts required of her character....Playwright Jamie Norris' script never talks down to the audience and even attempts to explain the attraction of racing, though never without losing sight of the deadly consequences.

Recommended Audience: For Teenagers

Themes

• Death
• Street Racing
• Dating