12 Litres 8800 Steps is a new and intimate play exploring the emotional world of a woman who loves and physically cares for her partner as he slowly passes away from disease caused by alcoholism. The material for the play is drawn from lead actor and writer Anita La Selva’s lived experience, and is tenderly brought to life by co-director Bea Pizano, designer Trevor Schwellnus and choreographer Victoria Mata.
Produced by the Unbridled Theatre Collective and Aluna Theatre, 12 Litres 8800 Steps is running at Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst St.) until May 17.
La Selva’s storytelling is authentic and brave, while the sparse staging always centres the often untold story of the strong and vulnerable survivor. In the production’s opening scenes, La Selva’s body lies at the very edge of the stage. She tries and tries again to find rest, her efforts amplified through the restless projections of her insomniac mind; projections that enlarge and recede, but never stay still. As viewers, we viscerally experience her anxiety and exhaustion.
The exploration of La Selva’s care, despair, and persistence is interwoven with fragments of her relationship with a horse. I’ve seen many theatre productions in which the portrayal of animals is caricatured. But this horse is rendered beautifully by actor Brad Cook and costume & mask designers Teresa Pryzbyski and Monica Viani.
The horse is a shape-shifting and graceful presence with haunting eyes. The scenes between La Selva and this wild but warm animal are often wordless, yet full of evocative sound, color and movement. Mata’s choreography in these scenes creates symbolic breadth and a depth of compassion around La Selva’s narration.
A second important theme in the production is water: the water in the terrifyingly deep end of a swimming pool, the multitude of water containers in a home that might contain alcohol or the body’s own water, In end stage liver disease, bodies can accumulate litres of extra water. This water must be drained through a needle and collected into bottles. It is powerful to witness La Selva taking time to fill 12 litre bottles of water on stage, using a clinical siphon device.
Stunning projections skillfully integrated into the DNA of the performance provide additional interpretations of key themes. As the narrative moves towards its conclusion, La Selva learns to calm herself by walking city streets. This commitment to keep advancing slowly, one step at a time, is interpreted through captivating overlapping projections of La Selva moving though defamiliarized cityscapes. At times she is fully visible and at times she is a silhouette or a cut out absence.
The tension between her isolation, her inner anger, and the indifferent chaos of the city is driven home effectively by the soundscape from Thomas Ryder Payne, underscoring these projections.
The piece ends with a philosophical reflection on the importance of acceptance and presence in one’s own journey. For me, this felt a little abrupt and somewhat at odds with the intensity of emotional and physical struggle portrayed in the rest of the play. And yet, I can understand La Selva’s need to offer a place to rest for the soul at the end of such a journey.
This is an important, heartfelt work that tackles a subject still cloaked in shame and stigma. The portrayal of medical aspects of end stage liver and renal disease due to alcoholism is realistic and at times harrowing. The exploration of love and healing, where communication and understanding may be difficult or impossible, is hauntingly expressed through the masterful theatrical realization of the enigmatic horse. There is balm here for those who recognize La Selva’s narrative, and indeed for all who seek more presence than erasure on their own life journeys.
This article appeared in the 2026 Jun/Jul issue.