Public Consumption show poster

Public Consumption

November 27 – December 7 2025

Created by Lauren Gillis and Alaine Hutton

A Lester Trips (Theatre) Production
Presented by Factory Theatre


A famous actor, cancelled for his cannibal texts and convicted of heinous assaults, is sentenced to read hundreds of thousands of pages of erotic fanfiction, with the aim of training a large AI to identify obscenity that violates a social media platform’s standards.

Driven by a ferocious boredom, and reaching his own tolerance for cringe content shockingly fast, he pesters his lawyer to trade in his sentence on an experimental free market of generally unpleasant tasks. He soon discovers a shorter sentence on paper does not necessarily feel shorter in the human body. In this world, an augmented-reality autosadistic trip through content moderation hell is all in a day’s work. 

A new body horror speculative fiction from the creators of Honey I’m Home.

Image Design by Awake Studio


Tickets on Sale
October 2025


Creators

A black and white photo of two white women standing in front of a curtain backdrop. Lauren, who is shorter and has long dark curly hair and wears a lush black fur coat, stands in front of Alaine, who has long straight blonde hair and wears a light coloured collared shirt and suit jacket. Their shoulders face camera left and their heads are turned to look directly into the camera with an invitational stare.

Lester Trips (Theatre) is Lauren Gillis (left) and Alaine Hutton (right), a performing/writing/directing/designing duo with a decade of shared training in physical performance and making people uncomfortable. We create questionably comedic theatre, film, and “digital not otherwise specified”, often revolving around the internet ruining our brains, distorting our sexualities, and how we all can’t stop looking at it.

Lester’s performance foundation stems from butoh-based embodiment with Denise Fujiwara and Fides Krucker’s approach to extended range vocal practice, Emotionally Integrated Voice.

Previous works include ghost stories about erotic repression Mr. Truth (Why Not Theatre’s RISER/ Theatre Centre 2018), a peri-apocalyptic deformation of the wizard of oz Intangible Trappings (2016), men’s dating seminar gone wrong Safe and Sorry (SummerWorks 2019), and a speculative fiction/cringe comedy series streaming on CBCGem, Content Farm (2023),  and body horror mystery Honey I’m Home (Factory Theatre, 2024).

lestertrips.com


Creative Team

A 40 something white man of Italian descent sitting in a wooden high back chair in front of textured white walls looks intensely into the camera. He's wearing a red long sleeved t-shirt, has short wavy dark hair and a dark moustache with a stubble beard.
Adam Paolozza

Consulting Director

A white man in his 40s is resting his arm on something off frame. Neon washes of blue and orange hit either side of Andre's face accentuating his short grey/blonde beard, bald head and gentle smile. Wearing a black, semi-transparent collared short sleeve shirt with a floral pattern, a silver necklace is revealed underneath.
André du Toit

Lighting Designer

A white man in his 30s standing outside on a sunny day in front of a latticework fence with leaves. He has short wavy dark hair, moustache and beard and is smiling softly looking directly at the camera.
S. Quinn Hoodless

Sound Designer and Composer

A stylized grainy image of a 30-year-old white man sitting at a kitchen table holding a mug in front of a vase of tall, colourful flowers. Evan wears a light coloured work jacket and toque, has prominent dark eyebrows and is looking down at the flowers while softly smiling.
Evan Thompson

Co-Composer

A black and white photo of a 57 year old white woman with large curly white hair blowing in the wind, in front of trees. Fides looks thoughtfully off camera with a relaxed face.
Fides Krucker

Vocal Design and Coaching

A woman standing outdoors with bright green and purple foliage blurred in the background. Mel is wearing a white and black floral button up shirt, with her shoulders facing the camera and her face turned in profile. Mel wears modern black circular earrings, has a platinum blonde pixie cut and her mouth is in a wide smile with red lipstick.
Mel Hague

Dramaturge & Consulting Director

Photo of a white woman with short flowy light blonde hair wearing a black cowl neck sweater and small blue stud earrings. With bright blue eyes and light red lipstick, Rosemary smiles gently looking directly at the camera.
Rosemary Dunsmore

Scenework Coach

Studio photo of a white woman in her 30s with shoulder-length dark blonde hair wearing a black t-shirt. The blue background matches Laura’s blue eyes which look directly at the camera and crinkle from a big smile.
Laura Philipps

Production/Stage Manager & Associate Producer