A Staged Reading of ‘Weyburn 1959’

Join us for a staged reading of Weyburn 1959, by Arthur Milner and directed by Jonathan Seinen. This performance is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Spring on the Prairie: Kiyoshi Izumi and the work of Izumi Arnott and Sugiyama, sharing a local perspective on the history of experimental research in healthcare and drawing meaningful connections to Izumi’s design for the Yorkton Psychiatric Centre.

A Staged Reading Of

WEYBURN 1959

By Arthur Milner

Directed by Jonathan Seinen

Produced by Architect Theatre

In the 1950s, Weyburn Mental Hospital in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, was a world centre for research into the use of LSD in the treatment of mental illness. By the mid-‘60s, LSD was a popular street drug and was made illegal, even for medical research. And in 1971, the massive mental hospital closed its doors. Weyburn 1959 is a fictionalized account of a transformational event in the lives of the researchers.

Arthur Milner is a playwright, theatre director, and columnist for inroadsjournal.ca. Getting to Room Temperature was produced by Regina’s Curtain Razors and will be produced, in French, by La Troupe du Jour in January. Facts, a murder mystery set in the West Bank, toured Palestine and Israel in Arabic. He’s now working with Curtain Razors on Tommy & Père, about Father Athol Murray and Tommy Douglas; and with Architect Theatre on Weyburn 1959, about LSD research in Saskatchewan in the 1950s.

Jonathan Seinen (he/him) is an award-winning theatre director, actor, creator, producer, and co-founder of Architect Theatre. Directing credits include Boys In Chairs Collective’s Access Me (Dora Award for Outstanding Direction), Governor General’s Award Nominee Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land) by Jeff Ho (Theatre Passe Muraille/Saga Collectif/Architect Theatre), and Saga Collectif’s Black Boys (Buddies In Times Theatre). Jonathan was awarded the 2020 John Hirsch Prize for Directing from the Canada Council for the Arts, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of Regina. jonathanseinen.com