Our Lady of the Home recounts the story of Liza, a housewife of the 1960’s who finds herself troubled by her reality. Perceiving this unease as a mental imbalance -rather than a justified response to her circumstances- she contacts her doctor and begins to take a new, fashionable medication. Through a theatrical-circus vocabulary, performer Alyssa Bunce navigates the connection between inner wellbeing and external conditions, inviting the audience to enter Liza’s inmost room. Blending surrealism, symbolism, humility, and comedy, Our Lady of the Home evokes a captivating and resonant performance that resists stigma, entrances, and celebrates the act of choosing oneself.
Duration: 60 minutes.
Note: This show references themes of substance use & mental health which may be sensitive for some individuals.
Multimedia / Programme: (Our Lady of) The Wandering Womb
Conceptualization and Performance:
Realization, Directeur de Jeu:
Artistic Advisor, Directrice de Jeu:
Represented by:
Sound Design:
Light Design:
Dramaturgic Assistance:
Filming, editing, photography:
Backdrop, Coatrack:
Cello Contributions:
Sobre Las Nubes:
Support: Canada Council for the Arts, Government of Yukon, Lotteries Yukon, Chamäleon Theatre, 3AM Theatre, The Yukon Arts Centre, Phantom Theatre.
Alyssa Bunce
Leonardo Sivira
Veronica Mélis
Julia Sanchez
Daniel Ben-Hur
Luis Fernando "Nano" Cano
Schoellkopf, Aime Morales
Brin Schoellkopf, Stepan Liubimov
Elaine Helguera
Audreanne Filion
Pedro Dabdaoub
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Government of Yukon.
When we meet Liza, she is living inside the carefully constructed ideal of domestic womanhood. She’s done everything correctly and has fulfilled every expectation. And yet, she can’t resist feeling that something’s wrong.
Through illusion, contortion, acrobatics, aerial hoop, and theatre, we observe her reality begin to fracture, radiate, and rearrange. She grows beyond the systems that have defined her, until finally, she says No:
the first declaration of her newfound self.
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Our Lady of the Home touches us through its energetic performance and the accuracy of its physical language. Alyssa Bunce's impressive interpretation proves the extent of her acrobatic and theatrical range.
Françoise Boudreault, CLIQUEZ CIRQUE, Montreal, July 2025
Digging into the roots of the inquiries, Bunce discovered that the voices were often implanted in her at a young age to serve a culture that to her seemed patriarchal, unjust, and often denying the humanity of certain individuals. Our Lady of the Home is immensely affirming and healing, as we observe the character's quest to reclaim her personal discernment— learning how to say no, for example.
Our Lady of the Home, Vermont, 2024
Bunce’s show in no way stigmatizes people who take medications for mental health purposes. It does, however, explore why it is that doctors more frequently prescribe them to women. [...] Even those who haven’t watched a lot of contemporary circus pick up on the show’s subtleties.
Amy Kenny, Yukon, 2025
