Visceral Visions and the Granville Island Cultural Society presents a free work-in-progress reading of Valerie Sing Turner's latest work, In the Shadow of the Mountains.

Featuring Amanda Sum, Diana Bang, Donna Wong-Juliani, Jessica Heafey, Laara Ong, Mason Temple, Ronin Wong.

Dramaturgy by Lisa C. Ravensbergen. Squamish Nation Cultural Consultant: Latash Maurice Nahanee.

It’s 1988. A family gathers to discuss what to do with Esther, a Chinese-Canadian WWII veteran, as they can no longer ignore her growing dementia. She keeps talking to Victor, her beloved brother, whose death she blames on the Japanese when he volunteered to serve in the Pacific arena during World War II. Her husband George, an Indigenous WWII vet, was Victor’s best friend. Their son, Gary, arrives with his Caucasian wife, Joanna, and their 18-year-old daughter Lucy, who is Poh-Poh’s favourite. Things are already tense when estranged elder daughter, Nancy, shows up with husband, Ken, and their two daughters Denise and Andrea, who have never met Esther and George because Ken is Japanese-Canadian and Esther refuses to acknowledge his existence. But the real fireworks begin when Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announces his plan to apologize to the Japanese Canadians and their families who were interned during WWII. Will the weight of Canadian history tear them apart?