"Ingenious, acidic comedy...a hallucinatory ultra-feminine living corpse." –– The Globe & Mail

A stunning testament to the power of art to unite all humanity. Or so says Pochsy.

Pochsy works at Mercury Packers. Where she packs mercury. This is a dark comedy. Not for children. It’s like a concert inside a mind inside a body sailing the River of Contemporary Consciousness. “Pochsy” offers herself up as a kind of salve for your 3:33 a.m. worries and dreams, from neo-banking to the future of humankind.

This show follows the acclaimed series of Pochsy Plays and short films, which have travelled the globe. IV is brought to you by the plays' creators and collaborators, who’ve also brought you adult horror clowns Mump & Smoot and Crawlspace. You do not have to have seen the previous Pochsy shows to see this one, just as you can watch one Looney Tunes cartoon without missing the beat – same body, separate cells. 

95 Mins. 

This production uses haze/fog.

For audiences 16+.

"Go. Just Go." – Munich Evening News

"Ingenious, acidic comedy."  – The Globe & Mail

"Hines is an astonishing artists both as a writer and a performer" – Edmonton Journal

"I laughed, I cried, I called my friends." – Minneapolis-St. Paul Pioneer Press

"To be in love with Pochsy, as I am, is an exquisitely perverse addiction.  She's like a disease you want to get in the hopes that it will purge something bigger." – Georgia Straight 

For more information on Pochsy, check out the website.  Click here.

Cast and Crew

Created and Performed by Karen Hines

Directed by Michael Kennard

Lighting and Set Design by Sandi Somers

Music and Sound Design by Chantal Vitalis

Additional Sounds by Richard Feren

Costume Consultant Justin Miller

Clunic Consultant and Associate Artist - John Turner

Production Dramaturg Blake Brooker

Graphics - Peter Moller

Production Associate and Social Media - Kate Pallesen

Co-Producer - Dianne Goodman

Producer - Keep Frozen 

About The Artist

Karen Hines

Karen Hines began her theatrical career as an underground comic and emerged as the author of seven award-winning plays which have been presented across North America at venues including One Yellow Rabbit, Tarragon Theatre, Boca del Lupo, Alberta Theatre Projects, Factory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Joe’s Pub (Public Theatre). She is a two-time finalist for Canada's Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, and a recent finalist for the Siminovitch Prize. She has directed and dramaturged the play creations of other Canadian theatre artists such as Linda Griffiths (Age of Arousal), adult horror clowns Mump & Smoot (Mike Kennard and John Turner), Jamie Dunsdon (Bliss) and Michelle Thrush (Inner Elder). Karen is an actor in Canadian and American television and film, and her own short films featuring the character “Pochsy” have screened on six continents.

Hines is the daughter of scientists, and since 1992 her performances have offered darkly comedic satires. Through visceral and literary alchemy (magical realism blended with comedy and horror) she aims to offer her audiences a moment’s escape from the need to escape. Chicago born, Toronto bred, she currently lives in Calgary where she has been collaborated with One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre and Alberta Theatre Projects, and has written National Magazine Award-winning pieces for Swerve Magazine. She has recently performed her real estate horror “Crawlspace” in micro theatres across Canada, and both it and “All the Little Animals I Have Eaten” have had their debuts in French translations. “Crawlspace" can now be heard as a CBC podcast.

Explore More From The Artist

My Name Is Pochsy: An Industrial Film
Click Here

Crawlspace CBC podcast
Click Here

Books by Coach House
Click Here