By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Grief is a universal, unavoidable emotion that we all feel at some point in our lives. When a loved one passes away. When a beloved pet succumbs to old age. When a romance or a friendship ends. And when our lives are at a point where we’re mourning the choices we didn’t make. We’re all told to go to therapy for this powerful emotion. See someone. See a specialist. Talk it out. Write it down in a journal. But what do you do with grief when there is no room for words? How does it manifest and show itself, in our bodies, in our minds, and on our faces?
On Friday, November 13, 2026, Tottering Biped Theatre brought a surreal piece of theatre art to the Burlington Performing Arts Centre (BPAC) that was equal parts fascinating and bewildering. The title of the show, Sometimes It Snows in April, is affectionately borrowed from a famous song by the late singer Prince, a melancholy tune about loss. This nonconformist piece, which runs for a brief fifty minutes, is an unlikely partnership between the art forms of a mime and a mezzo. Silence fills the room, and then opera singing fills the silence. An unexpected combination, and an ambitious experiment directed by Ric Knowles, with lighting designed by Cameron Slipp.
Performers Bó Bárdos and Trever Copp set themselves a challenge. Using body language, interpretive dance, opera singing, facial contortion, food, and animal grunts and squeals, the pair create a series of vignettes in which their characters experience and process unspeakable pain. Their stage for such an undertaking is simple. There’s a bench and a lamppost, somewhere to sit and a source of light. Their task is complicated. They have to portray the stages of grief without the elements of spoken language. The roles they play on stage are ones that have been kept alive over generations through storytelling. A hedonistic lover overindulges in a passionate affair only to get his heart broken. A woman has lost someone she used to spend all her days with, and her sanity is slipping away. Tragedy strikes when a lonely old man goes walking in the park with his dog, his only companion. And a stag hunter must face the reality of taking a life through sport. They’re all connected by being in the exact same phase of emotional turmoil in which the mind and the body haven’t reconciled with trauma yet.
It’s difficult to discern a linear storyline from this narrative. The performance comes across as an artist’s sketchbook of concepts surrounding the emotion of grief. The varying “sketches” show a consistent sense of style when one flips through the sketchbook, but on their own they’re incomplete. They need each other to carry the tone from beginning to end. Sometimes It Snows in April feels at times somewhat akin to an art exhibition of themed, lifelike sculptures that challenges viewers to rethink their ideas about something they thought they knew: what it means to lose someone or something precious.
Tottering Biped will have one more showing of Sometimes It Snows in April on Saturday, November 14, 2026 at 7 p.m. at BPAC. Tickets for both performances can be bought here. Interested theatregoers can also visit Tottering Biped Theatre’s website for more information about their other touring shows.
Those looking to enjoy another theatre experience at BPAC next weekend can purchase tickets to O Christmas Tea: A British Comedy presented by James and Jamesy, which will have two performances on Sunday, November 22 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased here.
