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Meet the author of the urgent and lyrical play Is My Microphone On?—Jordan Tannahill!

Describe yourself in one sentence.
“Does one write under any other condition than being possessed by abjection, in an indefinite catharsis?” ― Julia Kristeva

Tell us a little bit about your new book.
In Is My Microphone On?, a chorus of children and adolescents confront the adult audience about their inheritance of a world on fire. They do so with anger, humour, tenderness. Formally, the play draws inspiration from performance texts like That Night Follows Day by Tim Etchells, or perhaps Alice Birch’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. It was commissioned for the Theater der Welt festival by the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, and is being performed by various youth ensembles around the world at venues like the National Theatre of Great Britain and Sweden’s Riksteatern.  

What is something you’re curious about?
The nature of time, whether it exists.

What are some of your favourite plays?
Small Metal Objects byBack to Back Theatre
The Antipodes by Annie Baker
In the Republic of Happiness by Martin Crimp
An Octoroon by Branden Jacob-Jenkins
“Daddy”: A Melodrama by Jeremy O. Harris
By Heart by Tiago Rodrigues
Is This a Room by Tina Satter
Other Jesus by Evan Webber

What are you reading these days?
I just finished Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald. Whenever I read his novels, it makes me want to burn everything I’ve ever written.

What’s something that makes you laugh?
The laughter of my baby nephew.

Learn more about Jordan Tannahill:
Jordan Tannahill is a playwright, author, and director of film and theatre. Jordan’s plays have been translated into nine languages and twice honoured with a Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama: in 2014 for Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays and in 2018 for Botticelli in the Fire & Sunday in Sodom. His first novel, Liminal, won France’s Prix des jeunes libraires, and his second novel, The Listeners, was a finalist for the 2021 Giller Prize. In 2019, CBC Arts named Tannahill as one of sixty-nine LGBTQ Canadians, living or deceased, who have shaped the country’s history.