The Rules of Playing Risk

by Kristen Da Silva

Director’s Note


I am proud and honoured to be working with the incredibly dedicated, talented and forward-thinking artists, staff and production team at downstage centre on the online stage of YOUR theatre! Their passion and creativity inspires me daily, while encouraging and challenging me to develop new ways of looking at how we create theatrical magic.

To date, our team has created 10 exceptional original shows for you and now we are thrilled to present this World Premiere production!

Kristen Da Silva has created something very special for all of us as The Rules of Playing Risk is a delightful, witty, engaging and heartfelt story to be sure.

Kristen also provided all of us here at Theatre Orangeville with the opportunity to look at our world, our art form and our selves as creators, through a new lens… quite literally!

Originally, our pivoting to a “temporary” online experience was a decision made out of sheer necessity.

Now, together with you, our dearest friends and supporters, we are forging a new hybrid of theatre and film that will continue to nourish the soul, beguile the imagination, and joyously entertain both patrons and creators alike, until such time as we can once again safely gather for live performances in our beloved theatre.

Enjoy the show!

— David Nairn

Playwright’s Note


The Rules of Playing Risk is the story of a reclusive retired man, a nurse, and a fourteen-year-old boy, who, ostensibly, have little in common. As their three lives intersect, they struggle (often comically) to find common ground and, ultimately, connection.

As I write this, we are a year into the pandemic, missing connection, missing the significant people and communities in our lives, which has brought the topic of mental health to the fore in a new way. When I started this play back in 2018, it was not a subject being discussed openly or widely (even though research suggests it is being experienced widely) which is, in many ways, why I wrote it.

The truth is that 1 in 5 Canadians experience mental illness in any given year and half will experience it in their lifetime. It affects regular people like the characters in this play — our grandfathers, the leaders in our communities, our children.

I wanted to write about people like them, for everyone who has braved through without help. I wanted to present characters we laugh with, relate to, even recognize from our own lives, going through things we struggle to speak about. And I wanted to write about hope.

Enjoy in good health and, for anyone who needs it, please reach out. Vulnerability is a risk but it’s the most powerful one we can take.

Administrative