A Great and Terrible Wilderness
Lea Ogunoye just wants to stay in her bed, in her London home. Her friend Serafima convinces her to come on a little globetrot to Australia, then the fictional Southeastern Asian nation of Akhaterre, a land of mystical and political intrigue. Picking up a new friend along the way, the naively sweet nature girl Siobhan, they decide to break into a restricted forest in hopes of seeing the legendary Queen Ibis.
After a wrong turn, the backpackets discover they're out of their elements as they're forced to confront inner truths on top of the harsh physical conditions of the Krotam Forest. Lea only hopes her music player will have enough battery to survive the trip.
An adventure comedy navigating the stages of grief, A Great and Terrible Wilderness combines magic realism with action and emotional drama. As well as talking animals; you gotta have talking animals.
Brief history (Toronto 2014)
Another old script undergoing resurrection. This one was yet another piece I jammed with in University with Djanet Sears teaching. Basically, it was me observing basically everyone in school planning to go backpacking with very little knowledge of the culture they're going to experience. I had a thought - what if they got lost? What if I wrote a survival play? And what if I made it really weird and surreal. I didn't want to focus on a specific culture or nation. I wanted to make up the country. I wanted to play with the reality of it too.
So first draft. We read it in class. Got some laughs. Got some scratching of heads. It was time to do a little public reading of it to see if it actually had legs. We only did one. It was at the usual spot, the Victory Cafe near Bloor and Bathurst. It focused on three backpackers who loses one of their gang, and go on a harrowing journey of self-reflection and physical danger to get her back. It was going to have puppets and all that. I still wanna do it like that one day.
Three backpackers enter the Khromhayana Forest in a fictional tropical country called Seripaterre. Perrie Voss played Lea, the cynical tag-along who becomes the reluctant heroic centre of the journey. Her friend Serafima, played by Liz Der (The Maidenwar), is of Seripateri background although Canadian born. The third person is a naive but loving hippie named Siobhan, played by Katie Komarnicki, a mutual friend of the two who instantly grates on Lea. After Serafima suddenly disappears, Lea and Siobhan work together to try and find their lost friend, enduring dangers, strange creatures, and even attacked by gorilla warfare soldiers. You read that right. The ensemble featured Gill Buckle, Dorcas Chiu, and Sarah McGaughey.
The piece was absurd and funny, but also was trying to get into Lea's internal struggle. The original draft had her dealing with her spiritual life - as it is lifted from a biblical 'testing of faith' story. Not a religious piece, nor am I religious writer. But I really enjoyed the metaphor-as-story-drive thing.
So after I did Fireproof in Fort Frances and Toronto, I realized that I was telling two different stories. One, a comedy about volunteer firefighters, and another about grief and survivor guilt. I felt that the latter belonged in another play. Maybe this is where Lea's story can come in.
I thought about the Kubler-Ross model of grief and how each step can represent a different scene or level in the forest. The character Emily never disappeared when she left Fireproof; she just jumped ship to another story.
A Great and Terrible Wilderness will return as an online reading on October 25.
Online Reading Series, October 2026
Readers from London (UK and Canada), Calgary, Dublin, Thunder Bay, Modesto CA, and Montreal come together for the inaugural Online Reading Series. A Great and Terrible Wilderness by Robin Taylor Wright will premiere on Sunday, October 2026 2pm Central Time.
Dusting this version off from over a decade ago, I was inspired by the London youths I worked with at the Brighton Fringe. I really wanted to work with them again, and thought I'd snag one of them to be in it (Jazmine). I had also met Bethany digitally when calling out for actors to do Home for Boys at Brighton Fringe, even though it had already been cast. I met Thula during the same play development from a team in Liverpool that couldn't get together in good time to complete. It happens. But I knew I wanted to work with Thula. Rounding out the cast is an old friend Hadia who runs a kick ass bakery in London, the Flour and Thorn. Denise is a classic chum of mine who braved out George Brown with me, and she even channeled Lynne Thigpen as the Chief when I did a Carmen Sandiego Quiz Night at a local brew pub. Dana is a lost connection from Montreal, as they expressed interest in Home for Boys (Montreal run) but again, already had it cast, and I met the talented Ainsley at that show. Leilani Larios answered a call in my post in a mostly-forgotten online theatre group in Modesto, California. Rachel followed us from London, Ontario and won the draw we held looking for a reader!
I decided to make it a hybrid Euro-North American co-production, working with people I want to work with regardless of geographical location. Sometimes people want to come see a Laughing Cactus show, but we get sick, have kids to deal with, life in general. Sometimes, we just don't want to go out. If we can take at least one good thing from the pandemic, it's that we can still express ourselves creatively in a digital setting. Although it's never a replacement for live energy and the vibe of sharing a laugh or tear with the audience, it's a compromise at least.
So this will be our first foray into the Laughing Cactus Reading Series. It's an experiment, but with every little stumble, mighty strides follow.
Jazmine Byer (Calls from Castlemar) plays Lea
Bethany Green (Tits) plays Siobhan
Thula Isaack plays Serafima
Layla Hassan plays Emily and the Chrome Tiger
Denise Pinnock plays the Queen Ibis and Rabbi Lindo
Dana Prather plays the Sloth Who's Just About Had Enough and an Akhateri Vendor
Ainsley Ginette Daümler, Rachel Kuipery, and Leilani Larios in various ensemble roles.
Hadia Tariq Mutter is our narrator.