Happy Valley
Cripplethreat - Winnipeg, MB
V.8 - The Rachel Browne Theatre 
"Two billion years ago, a ginormous meteor hit the earth and now my legs don't work. WTF!"
How are you supposed to do stand-up when you can't even, you know, STAND UP?!
Notorious for her cheeky comedy, biting social commentary and razor-sharp hot takes on the absurdities of life, Debbie Patterson takes you on a roller-coaster ride through her ancestral home, Happy Valley: the most polluted place on earth.
"Unflinching" "No holds barred" "Shudders with truth" - Holly Harris, Winnipeg Free Press

Cast:
Debbie Patterson

  		Show Info:
60 Mins minutes
Genre:
Stand-Up

Audience:
General

Coarse Language, Violent Content, Sexual Content, Possibly triggering content includes discussion of childhood sexual abuse, religious harm, land theft and environmental devastation.

Wed July 15 6:00 PM
Fri July 17 4:00 PM
Sun July 19 11:00 AM
Wed July 22 11:00 AM
Fri July 24 9:00 PM
Sat July 25 7:45 PM
Sun July 26 4:15 PM

Happy Valley

Cripplethreat—The Rachel Browne Theatre

There was nothing very happy about the place Happy Valley, where Debbie Patterson grew up. It was just outside of Sudbury and was so polluted by the mining and smelting it was condemned and everyone moved out. Patterson covers a lot of ground in this piece, in which one of the recurring themes is how people can attempt to devalue others that they feel are inferior, be it because someone is disabled, Indigenous, or whatever difference they think justifies their belief.

She also focuses on the lasting horrible effects of colonization (driven by capitalists and missionaries), mining towns, and what happens when we do not give the land the respect it deserves.

There is a lot of trauma that gets unpacked here, be sure to read the warning in the Program guide so you are prepared for that going in to it.

The biggest take-away to me was despite all that trauma, you can only be devalued if you let them. That positive note and Patterson’s strength, sense of humour, and bravery make this a very powerful show.

Murray Hunter