Theatre Outré and Lethbridge Pride Fest are thrilled to present, for Pride month, a virtual reading of a new play by Liam Monaghan!

Who is Tatiana Petrovna? The true identity of this would-be monarchical drag queen is a mystery: all anyone knows is that she’s got a taste for expensive champagne and absolute power, not to mention a peculiar obsession with The Empress Hotel. When student journalist Cody Fehr unveils the man behind the make-up, however, he learns that appearances may not be so deceiving after all, and that sometimes, it’s our masks which reveal the truth of our secret selves. The Empress is a politically provocative and philosophically poignant play, one which questions the nature of identity, the ethics of sexuality, and the relationship of art and performance to life.

About the Playwright:
Liam Monaghan is a writer, theatre artist, and educator. His previously produced plays are “How to Leave” (Theatre Outré, Lethbridge) and “The Boy in the Chrysalis” (Queer Acts Festival, Halifax; Hapax Theatre, Victoria Fringe Festival “Best Solo Show”). For the past three years, he has taught academic writing and administrated the Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication at UBC Library. He is an incoming MFA Student in Theatre Practice at the University of Alberta, where his proposed research-creation has been awarded a Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.