• Jeff has been named Associate Artistic Director of Tarragon Theatre, Toronto
• Jeff initially set out writing cockroach to consider how Shakespeare in translation (in a multitude of languages) might sound musically before turning his lens inward to consider the relationship between Shakespeare with his mother tongue, Cantonese.
• Jeff likes coffee, cats, theatre, and his husband very much.
• First produced by Tarragon Theatre, Toronto, in September 2022

Jeff Ho is a theatre artist, originally from Hong Kong. As an actor, he has toured as Ophelia in Why Not Theatre’s Prince Hamlet across Canada and the US for over five years. As a playwright, his works include Cockroach, Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land), Antigone: 方, and trace. Jeff is a recipient of the LAMBDA Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Drama, Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award for Best New Canadian Play, the Jon Kaplan Legacy Fund Award, has been a finalist for the Playwright’s Guild of Canada Drama Award and the Governor General’s Literary Award, and has been nominated for four Dora Mavor Moore Awards. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and currently lives in Toronto.

Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho)'s profile page

Dora Mavor Moore Award–winner Hanna Kiel is from Seoul, South Korea, and moved to Vancouver, Canada, in 1996. She has presented her work at 12 Minutes Max, PlanB Singles and Solos Festival, and the Dancing on the Edge Festival in Vancouver. In 2007, she collaborated with Yoko Ono as a dancer and choreographer at the Centre A. Moving to Toronto in 2008, Hanna has continued choreographing for Rosedale Heights School of the Arts, Conteur Dance Academy, George Brown Dance, Ryerson Dances, School of Toronto Dance Theatre, ProArteDanza, Jörgen Dance, the National Ballet of Canada, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Toronto Dance Theatre, Dusk Dances, Tarragon Theatre, Silk Bath Collective, and Decidedly Jazz Danceworks in Calgary. In 2012 she won Northwest Dance Project’s Pretty Creatives international choreographic competition, and she was an e-choreographer in 2015 for Springboard Danse Montreal. Hanna is the artistic director of Human Body Expression Dance Company.

Hanna Kiel's profile page

Mike Payette is a director, educator, and actor who has appeared at some of Canada’s finest theatres. He has worked with incredible companies across the country including the Citadel, Vertigo, Banff Centre, Geordie, Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland, Repercussion Theatre, Segal Centre, Centaur, the Grand, Factory Theatre, Neptune, and the National Arts Centre, among others. Directing credits include Come Home: The Legend of Daddy Hall, cockroach (曱甴), Paint Me This House of Love (Tarragon), Blithe Spirit (Shaw Festival), Choir Boy (Canadian Stage/Arts Club Theatre), Harlem Duet (Black Theatre Workshop), Another Home Invasion (Tableau D’Hôte Theatre), Hosanna and Choir Boy (Centaur), Around the World in 80 Days, Virginia Wolf, The Paperbag Princess, and Reaching for Starlight (Geordie), Venus, Burning Vision, and Indecent (National Theatre School), Sensitivity (Obsidian Theatre/CBC Gem), the Quebec premiere of Héritage—A Raisin in the Sun (Théâtre Duceppe), along with the national tours of The Tashme Project (Tashme Prod/Centaur/Factory/Firehall), and Lorena Gale’s Angélique (BTW/Tableau D’Hôte/NAC/Factory/Obsidian). Mike is a two-time Montreal English Theatre Award (META) recipient and was the co-founding artistic director of Tableau D’Hôte Theatre and past assistant artistic director for Black Theatre Workshop. He was also artistic and executive director of Geordie Productions in Montreal before becoming artistic director of Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, where he is currently based.

Mike Payette's profile page

• Nominated, Playwrights Guild of Canada Drama Award

“Ho has found a powerful and disturbing metaphor for xenophobia and intolerance.”

Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine

“Cockroach is a confident, thoughtful and compelling show that will make you think twice about what (or who) we might be crushing under our feet.”

Ilana Lucas, Broadway World

“A vibrant, often-funny examination of what it means to be an immigrant, a playwright, and even a human: as far as I’m concerned, it should be mandatory viewing for Toronto audiences, a play unlike any other this year.”

Aisling Murphy, Intermission

“Shimmering with rich language [and] colourful characters . . . Cockroach delves deep into a deceptively simple story . . . Ho’s text, which is dense and layered, [is] peppered with sharp humour and an idiosyncratic style that leaves lines flying off the stage and bouncing between characters.”

Joshua Chong, Toronto Star