The Cost of Living

In The Cost of Living, The Jess-ter draws you in as performers bring to life a trial about land, power, and ethics. As the scales of justice—both literal and metaphorical—tip and turn, the story expands to confront urgent questions about indigeneity, immigration, and the cost of existence in a colonial world.

This bold collective creation weaves personal stories with inventive theatricality, placing the audience in the jury box to weigh testimonies that transcend borders and binaries. Created by a collective of emerging artists, the show delivers searing honesty, radical care, and unapologetic humor; a must-see for those seeking theatre that disrupts, provokes, and inspires action.

Are you ready to weigh in?

With roots in places all over the world from Iran, USA, and Mexico to Kahnawà:ke and The Red River Métis Nation, this multicultural group of Concordia theatre students/alum question diversity, curse the universe and spit on barriers in the narrative journey of The Cost of Living. Examining their own cultural upbringings while integrating into the Quebecois-Canadian society, this group of performer-creators previously brought their first original theatrical production, À Confirmer / T.B.C., to the stages of the 2023 Montreal Fringe Festival. Reprising and developing the questions they curse the universe with, they brought a 2nd edition in early 2024, 100% HUMAN ERROR, in collaboration with Concordia’s Acts of Listening Lab (ALLab) in the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS).