Did you try some self-improvement during lockdown? Ate only organic? Thought a juice cleanse was a good idea? Attempted 5am yoga? Perhaps you'll relate to Theatre Works' upcoming and (after being delayed over a year) highly anticipated show WellBless, a darkly funny and satirical take on the wellness industry.
You see, sisters Juniper and Ava run a successful wellness brand called WellBless. They've got millions of followers on Instagram and have even launched a wellness conference that Goop would be proud of, with packed sessions on everything from PolgaTM (yoga-inspired pole-dancing) to crystal healing.
The conference goes awry, however, when their Instafamous follower Maha – a cancer patient who's eschewed conventional medicine for the WellBless program – dies on site. Unwilling to let the death destroy their business, the sisters work together with a panel of "experts" to pin Maha's demise on herself, devising a story where she used chemotherapy and thus filled her body with "toxins".
WellBless is a sharp, black comedy skewering the wellness industry – and although it was originally due to play at Theatre Works at the start of 2020, it feels more relevant now than ever before. The production was written by Debra Thomas and Ella Roth Barton, who also star alongside Emily Joy, Joseph Lai, Andrea Mendez and Lauren Steiner.
See WellBless at Theatre Works from December 1 to 11.
