EVER FALLING FLIGHT
Synopsis: Ever Falling Flight is a dark, comic fantasy inspired by the final, mysterious flight of aviator Amelia Earhart. Caught in a time loop, flying into sunset after sunset, a pilot known only as Æ dashes through increasingly strange ports-of-call, accompanied only by the voice of her (un)trusty navigator Fred. Pursued by the spectre of a demonic red plane, Æ draws ever closer to her final destination: the end of the world, or its very beginning. Ever Falling Flight is a play about mortality and what we leave behind us in the contrail of our lives. Productions: Sudbury Theatre Centre (2022) et en français, comme AÉROPORTÉE (translation and adaptation by Miriam Cusson) Productions: Le Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario (2022) |
RECEIVER OF WRECK
Synopsis: A shoe salesman chops off his foot with an axe. An esthetician has hers amputated by an outboard motor. At opposite ends of the same country, staring out at two different oceans, two people each lose something on the same day and are sent crashing together toward the dark heart of Canada. Inspired by the Salish Sea human foot discoveries, Receiver of Wreck is a grotesque love story about human waste and the mystic potential of change. Productions: Pat the Dog Theatre Creation (2017) Reviews: "Matt Heiti's new play is a strange, clever Millennial love story…" - Vicki Gilhula, Sudbury.com |
BLACK DOG: 4 VS THE WRLD
Synopsis: Two is fraught. While dealing with the impossible expectations of her parents, she is trying to understand why her brother, a bright and talented teenager, has taken his own life. It’s not until a fateful school detention that she meets three other students who all seem as lost as she is. There’s Three, a quiet, misunderstood guy who doesn’t quite know how to care for himself; Four, the fashionable, popular kid and class clown; and Five, a rebel ready to fight against everyone and everything. Despite their differences, they each grapple with depression and anxiety and become an unlikely source of comfort to one another. As the four unite to battle teachers, parents, therapists and their own demons, their promising futures begin to reveal themselves. Productions: Sudbury Theatre Centre (2013, 2014) Theatre UNB (2019) Reviews: "There's some heartbreaking moments in Black Dog: 4 vs the wild. 'It’s like the Breakfast Club but only realer and rawer,' said one woman in the audience. Well put nameless audience woman. You beat me to it." - Lara Bradley. The Sudbury Star |
MUCKING IN THE DRIFT
Synopsis: Bert Pilgrim has come unstuck in time, ageing back and forth between the young baseball star who won it all in one perfect summer, and an old man, strapped into a wheelchair, slowly losing his mind. Only the story, his yarn, holds it all together. Mucking in the Drift is a dark Vaudevillian comedy about a man searching for relevance in the chaos of a changing world. Productions: Sudbury Theatre Centre (2013) Reviews: “This is an important play, not just to Sudbury, but to every northern town and city, every community with a resource-based economy that has, for decades, suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (and boom and bust cycles). Speaking of the audience, the reaction from the opening night crowd was the envy of directors and playwrights the world over. There were gasps, words of recognition bubbling unbidden from mouths too invested in the story to keep quiet.” - Mark Gentili, Northern Life / Sudbury.com |
PLAGUE: A [SIC] LOVE STORY
Synopsis: A mysterious sickness, spread by crows, has cocooned a city in paranoia, sending its inhabitants back to a ridiculous kind of medieval superstition. A husband and wife seal themselves in their rundown apartment to look after their screaming unnamed child. While the sickness gnaws at the seams, Bernard and Remy gnaw at each other. Inspired by Fawlty Towers and David Lynch, Plague (a sic love story) is a grotesque, black comedy about the sickening power of love. Productions: Crestfallen (2013) Ou est Billy ou ou (2017) Reviews: "This is the neatest piece of theatre. Actually, I’ll step it up to deftest and cleverest... You’ll get that glowy feeling of having experienced something new and edge-of-your-seat intense that will make you want to chat with the people sitting near you." - Lara Bradley, The Sudbury Star "Although there are no shortage of apocalyptic tales these days, playwright Matthew Heiti brings a fresh eye to the daily struggle of the survivors. The end of the world just might involve a lover’s spat over tomato soup in a hermetically sealed apartment. Heiti achieves a fine balance for the couple between being challenging and tender." - Amy Ward, Mooney on Theatre |
AVIATRIX
Synopsis: Aviatrix is a dark, comic one-act fantasy about the final, mysterious flight of aviator Amelia Earhart. Dashing through increasingly strange ports-of-call with her (un)trusty navigator Fred, a fading echo of the famous pilot races against time. Productions: Lunchbox Theatre (2012) Reviews: “★★★★ …in Heiti’s hands her story has lost little of its excitement, mystery and tension.” - Louis Hobson, Calgary Sun “★★★½ The power and pleasure of Aviatrix: An Unreal Story of Amelia Earhart is that at some point, deep into Matthew Heiti’s compelling drama about the what-ifs behind Earhart’s 1937 disappearance, he manages to squeeze every one of us into the cockpit alongside Amelia.” - Stephen Hunt, Calgary Herald |
THE NICK DRAKE PROJECT
Synopsis: Billy Moon has become trapped in the nine-to-five life of crowded subways and fluorescent offices. Unable to find a place in ordinary society, Billy becomes lost in a strange land, alive with traveling musicians, railroad hobos, and mythological creatures. Pursued by the spectre of a great black dog, Billy is chased to the very edge of the world, where he must confront the demons of his own mind. Inspired by the music and life’s work of Nick Drake, The Nick Drake Project is a dark adventure about the black holes a person can fall into and the journey home. Productions: Toronto Underground (2006) Picture Box Theatre (2009) Reviews: Named "Best of the Fest" in Eye Weekly |
SON OF THE SUNSHINE
Written by Ryan Ward and Matthew Heiti Synopsis: A socially disconnected young man with Tourette's Syndrome undergoes an experimental surgery to correct his disorder, but as his symptoms start to fade so does his ability to heal the sick and dying. *2012 Genie Nominee for Best Original Screenplay |