About the Collective
OTHER HEARTS is a Toronto/Montreal-based performance collective made up of four members: Yousef Kadoura, Sebastian Marziali, Silvae Mercedes and Harri Thomas. Our work has been called “Bold, challenging, raw and creative” (Slotkin Letter, 2024) and moves laterally across form and genre, ranging from puppetry and performance art to installation and experimental film. This versatility is supported by the diversity of our identities and lived experiences (Arab, Womxn, Mad, Disabled, Latinx, Non-Binary, Queer). Our work together is driven by a shared curiosity around the possibilities of hybrid performance forms, and is especially devoted to marginalized histories, the inventive use of bodies and objects, and the performance of memory. Other Hearts seeks to blur the line between the artists, audience, and the world around them, creating liminal performances while exploring the creative potentials of accessibility and embodiment.
The Flower Machine
While every project has its own demands, we frequently come back to a methodology we refer to as the “Flower Machine”. Building on experiments that Harri conducted at the National Theatre School, this methodology incorporates tools from performance art, object theatre and social practice. Flower Machines are dynamically improvisational and predicated on a simple prompt: “change something”. This “something” will vary depending on the work we are exploring; so far, they have included the manipulation of music, stage lighting, objects, subjects, text, vocal and physical bodies.