Qualified

A Show by Garkin Productions

Writer & Performer: Ray Besharah Performer: Axandre Lemours

A father desperate to know if he’s doing right by his son submits to a bizarre parenting assessment. But as the questions get stranger and the score climbs, it becomes harder to tell the difference between being a good dad and looking like one.

Genesis of the Show:

The idea for Qualified grew out of two things that had been developing separately for several years: my work with Dicky Dicky, a performance duo I created with David Benedict Brown, and my experience of becoming a father. David and I have spent years making work that plays with performance, entertainment and the strange rules audiences willingly agree to when they enter a theatrical space. We’ve always been interested in taking familiar forms and pushing them somewhere a little uncomfortable. Meanwhile, becoming a dad gave me a subject I couldn’t stop thinking about. Parenthood also introduced me to the enormous amount of advice, expertise and conflicting expectations surrounding contemporary parenting. There are endless frameworks for doing it “right,” and endless opportunities to wonder whether you’re doing enough, doing too much, or quietly screwing up your child. I found myself both fascinated and amused by that culture of self-evaluation (and, inevitably, participating in it). The initial idea was simply to make a piece about modern “Dadding.” As I developed it, the assessment became the central theatrical device: a way of turning the private anxiety of wanting to be a good parent into something literal, measurable and performative. From there, the assessment format emerged, along with the question at the heart of the piece: if we are constantly measuring ourselves against someone else’s definition of “good,” how much are we actually living, and how much are we performing?

About the Artists

Ray Besharah

Ray Besharah is an Ottawa-based writer, performer and creator who has spent more than two decades making things with friends: plays, films, cabarets, musicals, improv, dinner theatre and whatever other strange idea seemed worth trying. He has toured across Canada on the Fringe circuit and performed off Broadway in New York’s FRIGID Festival, and his work has received support from the Ontario Arts Council and Theatre 4.669. Ray is one half of Dicky Dicky, a performance duo with David Benedict Brown whose work includes Dicky Dicky, and Dicky Dicky Dream Factory, both presented at the Ottawa Fringe. He has also written, directed and performed in numerous independent short films, many of which have received awards. He is interested in comedy that sneaks up on you, theatrical forms that do some of the thinking for you, and making ambitious things with whatever resources happen to be available. Qualified is his newest theatrical experiment.

Axandre Lemours

Born and raised in Ottawa, Ax has nurtured a love for theatre since 2015, performing with various Ottawa theatre companies in musicals and contemporary plays. By day, he works in communications with the federal government, and sings with the Capital Chamber Choir. His passion for doing silly things onstage is ever-growing, as is his eagerness to support friends, family, colleagues and peers in their own artistic endeavours. Né et élevé à Ottawa, Ax a une passion pour le théâtre depuis 2015, se produisant avec diverses compagnies théâtrales locales dans des comédies musicales et des pièces contemporaines. Il travaille dans les communications pour le gouvernement fédéral et chante au sein du Capital Chamber Choir. Son goût pour les niaiseries sur scène ne cesse de croître, tout comme son désir de soutenir ses amis, sa famille, ses collègues et ses pairs dans leurs projets artistiques.

Premiering October 28-31, 2026.