How the Dog
Strangling Vine
Got its Name

This community performance project was created for an amateur, multi-generational cast of Scarborough residents in Summer 2026. The project is designed to (i) explore theatre as an art form (ii) teach residents about plants and animals in their neighbourhoods, (iii) explore non-human agency in Toronto, and (iv) re-story the relationship between settler-colonial processes and local ecologies. Centering local species and their behaviours, the play revisits key historical moments in Scarborough (such as homesteading and nuclear waste dumping) through a non-human lens.

The stage-play, a one-act eco-tragedy, challenges dominant narratives of “invasive species” that villainizes plants and animals for simply trying to survive and thrive, while ignoring the violent processes that create and sustain ecological crises. 'How the Dog Strangling Vine Got its Name' offers a counter-narrative rooted in history, non-human agency, and a relational ethic.