This Clown is OSHA Compliant

A Show by Borzoid Theatre & The Precariat

Writers & Performers: Nat Habib & Kel MacDonald

Director: Hilary Peck | Rehearsal Stage Manager: Sadie Thomson

Rubber gloves. Safety goggles. Steel toe clown shoes.

Builder-Clowns, Buster and Bonk, have just been assigned their first ever annual workplace safety training. They will be tested on their ability to keep an organized workspace, correctly don their safety equipment, and juggle multiple projects on the go while maintaining the most rigorous safety standards. Though these three challenges sound manageable — (after all, Buster and Bonk are capable carpenters!) — mishaps arise when neither clown fits the stereotypical idea of what it means to be a builder. Will comically large safety harnesses and noodle arms spell the end of Buster and Bonk’s dream careers; or can they prove that there’s a place for silly billies like them in the workshop?

Genesis of the Show:

Like Buster and Bonk, we (Kel and Nat) are co-workers in a props building workshop who aren’t stereotypical builders, due to gender and disability. Our lived experiences inform the narrative and bits within our show, and while we love our work, we frequently commiserate over day-to-day challenges (such as feeling like an afterthought regarding PPE). With this piece, we aim to prompt audiences to reflect on the invisible barriers in their own workspaces that possibly haven’t occurred to them before. Additionally, while Buster & Bonk’s story is humorous, we hope to empower audiences to advocate for themselves and their fellow workers when it comes to addressing workplace safety.

About the Artists

Nat Habib

Nat Habib may be a silly billy, but she takes theatre and workplace safety most seriously. She is an Ottawa-based artist who can be found working as a prop builder at the National Arts Centre, and secretary for the Youth Infringement Festival board. Nat is also the co-founder of Borzoid Theatre, whose recent projects include Clown Seeking Clown at Ottawa and Montreal Fringe, and a Daylight Savings Hour cabaret set to go up this Halloween night. When not doing theatre stuff, you can find Nat watching way too many movies.

Kel MacDonald

By day, Kel MacDonald can be found deep in the labyrinthine underground of the National Arts Centre, as the Assistant to the Head of Props, working alongside fellow OSHA Clowns co-creator Nat Habib. By night, Kel performs as one half of RAVE MOMS (which debuted at Fresh Meat 2022) with fellow co-founder of The Precariat, Hilary Peck. Kel's additional credits as a media artist include include two co-creations on ecology and the urban environment with Sadie Thomson: BRUTALISM FOR BIRDS (2022), a site-specific augmented reality work by postcard, and the NAC-commissioned audio drama The Cartographers (2024).

Hilary Peck

Hilary Peck (she/her), is a local performing artist currently working and living on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg. As a theatre creator she is interested in exploring the relationship between audience and liminal space especially through physicality, movement, and clown. She is an avid enthusiast of electronic music, having recently taken up learning how to mix and create DJ sets. She is very grateful to her partner Dan, her mother, father, and stepmother Greta for their never-ending love and support.

Sadie Thomson

Sadie Thomson is an Ottawa-based creative technologist and theatre designer. She remains dutifully OHSA-compliant. Her creative work has been supported by the Digital Artists Resource Center, Theatre 4.669 and the National Arts Center. Recent credits include lighting design for Trip The Light Theatre's Nuit and co-creation of EXA, an immersive tarot-reading experience.

Instagram: TBC

Premiering October 28-31, 2026.