In Nightwalks with Teenagers, generations meet to wander the streets after dark
Mammalian Diving Reflex production comes to Vancouver for the first time in a bilingual presentation by Théâtre la Seizième
Nightwalks with Teenagers in Cork, Ireland. Photo by Jed Niezgoda
Théâtre la Seizième presents Mammalian Diving Reflex’s Nightwalks with Teenagers from September 25 to October 4 outdoors, departing from the Fairview area
DARREN O’DONNELL’S INSPIRATION for Nightwalks with Teenagers came from, as the title might suggest, walking around at night with teenagers.
In 2006, his company Mammalian Diving Reflex began working with the youth at Parkdale Junior and Senior Public School in Toronto, creating zany productions like Haircuts by Children, in which a group of adults have to put their trust in kids to run a salon and give them free haircuts (it came to the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in 2008). By 2009, the company went on tour—but one 13-year-old who missed having it around reached out to see if they could keep the collaboration going. Thus, a crew called the Torontonians (now known as the Young Mammals) was born.
When Stir connects with O’Donnell by Zoom, he’s in Melbourne, Australia, working on a new production called Speed Dating with Cacti that takes place in a public garden. He recalls how on one magical evening, the Young Mammals went to go see a Pina Bausch–inspired performance called Out of Context - For Pina by the now-defunct company les ballets C de la B at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.
“After we saw that show, they had all this energy, and they wanted to walk home as opposed to taking transit,” O’Donnell recalls. “So we just walked home through this particular neighbourhood in the entertainment district, you know, where there’s nightclubs and stuff like that. And they just were clowns. They goofed off in front of the people who were outside smoking, and then they played on any kind of construction equipment.”
Shortly afterwards, Nightwalks with Teenagers was born—and now Théâtre la Seizième will host the inaugural Vancouver edition of the show from September 25 to October 4. Four coordinators and a group of teenagers will lead participants on a walk through the city at night, during which they’ll explore the urban landscape. The walk is set to start off in the Fairview area close to Studio 16 in the Maison de la francophonie and will take place in both English and French. Ticketholders will be emailed the exact departure location just a few days before the event, though the route itself will be kept a surprise.
Darren O'Donnell. Photo by Jure Erzen
Mammalian Diving Reflex often tours to Vancouver, and has brought a couple other works to the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival aside from Haircuts by Children. Those include Eat the Street, in which kids acted as restaurant critics, and The Children’s Choice Awards, in which a group of youngsters attended PuSh shows, gave their frank reviews, and handed out chocolate-covered awards. The company will also stage Everything Has Disappeared, a piece about the impact the Filipinx diaspora has on the global economy, at the fest’s upcoming edition in the new year.
Like much of O’Donnell’s work, Nightwalks with Teenagers challenges folks’ definition of what theatre can be.
“It’s not a performance where anybody’s pretending to be anything other than what they are: teenagers and adults hanging out,” the artistic director says. By that, he means there are no forced interactions, and there’s certainly no planned dialogue. It’s just teens wandering aimlessly through the city, curious, free, and full of energy.
“The most interesting thing that I’ve heard more than once is that people will have an experience of what they imagine it’s like to be a free-spirited teenager out at night with their friends, which they never had,” O’Donnell says. “They never had friends, or very many friends. They never had a crew that they wandered the streets with late at night. And some people seem to have healed themselves. I mean, that’s a big statement—but they do report, like, ‘Oh my god, I finally had this kind of experience that I’ve never been able to have. Thank you.’”
Since the 2011 launch of Nightwalks with Teenagers in Inverness, Nova Scotia, walks have been hosted all over the world, from Mexico City to Tokyo. There was one recently with 40 teen tour guides in Berlin, and another with just five in Aarhus, Denmark. In a cool full-circle moment, many of the adult coordinators started out as teens in the project over a decade ago.
Says O’Donnell: “The people who appreciate it in the way that I like it to be appreciated just reflect on the fact that ‘I don’t do this, like, I don’t hang around with teenagers and wander around just shooting the shit.’ You know?” he says. “That’s just not a social formation that exists anywhere. It’s really, really tough to find an intergenerational pile of people just wandering the streets.”
Participants on the walk can expect some icebreaker games throughout to get them comfortable with the experience. But there will also be plenty of time for more natural conversations and interactions.
“Talking to strangers is not something that happens very much,” O’Donnell says, “and certainly wandering the streets with strangers doesn’t happen much. So the mix of all that creates a utopian experience that you get to look at and ponder, ‘Why don’t we have more of these kinds of moments?’”
If you’ve ever wondered the same, now’s the time to lace up your sneakers and get steppin’. 
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