Love Bomb, a free musical production taking place this Monday, February 11 at Max Cameron Theatre, was originally created solely as a piece of art, according to artistic director Renee Iaci. It soon morphed into something more.
“It was meant literally as only a piece of entertainment, but it has become something different,” she said.
With 12 original songs and a story that unfolds like a mystery, the play tells a fictional account of a mother searching for her missing daughter, but many of the details are based on a high-profile sex trafficking case that happened in BC in recent years.
“We based this on a few years of research on a case that happened in BC literally while we were writing the story,” said Iaci. “We talked to the lead investigators, read 11 girls’ testimonies and met with the crown counsel so a lot of the story has facts in it.”
The RCMP saw the production when it was playing at Vancouver’s Firehall Arts Centre and now sponsor the production which is shown at schools throughout the country.
“We had no intention of going to schools because we didn’t necessarily think it was school appropriate,” said Iaci. “But of course the average age of kids who are sex-trafficked is 14, and it’s 12 for girls from First Nations communities. Hopefully, we can open the conversation up, because it is happening in Powell River and the Sunshine Coast.”
Love Bomb plays at 7 pm on Monday, February 11, at Max Cameron Theatre. Admission is free and there will be a short talk following the show.
