Hearts Left Open

What a powerful show! I laughed, I cried and was with the characters all the way! The show does deal with death, and was very real at times, but well worth it! Well written and extremely well acted,

As a parent who has spent time in those halls, cried, screamed, felt the heart break and the triumph I recommend this show. The cast is amazing. All the feels. The writer sharing her story and holding space for those of us that know is so beautiful. Mama Bear 💗 "Today is a Good Day💗💗💗 Full of gratitude and appreciation.

This show was excellent. Excellent writing and acting. It was set in a hospital, with children (not seen) experiencing cancer, so it was sad and heartbreaking, and at times joyful. I was so pleased that there was a shout-out to Canadian Blood Services. Anyone seeing this play would have to be moved by the discussion of bone marrow transplants for children with leukemia and might want to join the stem cell registry for real!

What an incredible performance! I sincerely hope we see more from this production company. I don't know if they are a troupe that consistently works together, but they should be. Especially the main husband/wife actors. The history and tension they bring when on stage together is phenomenal. If you want to see actors explore every human emotion possible in under an hour, this is it!! Wow. Well done everyone.

This show is incredible! It definitely got me in all my feels. The acting was incredible by all the actors but Marisa was mesmerizing. I saw her in a production in Leduc last year. Please dont miss this show ! I laughed, I cried. Love love love

I had the privilege to see Hearts Left Open, and what a show it was. The play is exactly what its title suggests. It is heart wrenching yet profoundly beautiful. It captures the friendship that forms in the hardest moments of life while also laying bare the nuances of grief, love, and devastating heartbreak.

The performances do not feel like acting at all. The emotions are so authentic that at times you forget you are in a theatre and feel as though you are living alongside these characters in their most difficult hours.

The writing and acting are raw, honest, and deeply moving. This is the kind of theatre that reminds us why live performance matters. For a moment in time, you get to live another person’s life.

I will not lie. This show is not always easy to watch, but it took my heart and is absolutely worth seeing. In my opinion it deserves recognition and awards for both its acting and its writing. I definitely would recommend.

It was moving and inspiring. Bring your tissues with you!! We have seen Marisa (who plays Beth) on stage previously with the Maclab Theatre in Leduc and she never disappoints! Another incredible performance. And WOW what a heavy lift she is carrying with this story! She is someone to watch. I don't know if this is a personal story for the playwright, but I will say it is accurate to life in an oncology unit. I am a survivor myself and so many of the words felt like they were taken directly from my memories. I have lived in this story and I can say that the entire ensemble did an amazing job.

As a notorious crier, I expected to cry. Even had my tissues in hand. Not a single tear was milked from my eye.

It was all tell not show. The amount of cliche cancer/illness platitudes and sayings was wild—it felt word for word from motivational cancer support forums. At some point I worried part of this was written by genAl bc of how many cliches were in the script.

A friend warned me to sit in the front row because she couldn't hear when she came to an earlier showing. And yeah...she was right. Only one actor knew how to project. Because they play the ambient hospital sounds so loudly, and so many of the actors would mutter away from the audience, I had to strain my ears even in the first row. And this is a small theatre. I don’t think the ambient noise, that seemed to randomly start and stop, nor the lights changing colours were effective. Again, because every thought, feeling, and plot point was explained in detail by the characters rather than shown to us on stage.

Maybe it was an off night, or a consequence of a flat script, but the performances didn't really move me either. I felt like I was watching archetypes, not characters. Just because an archetype tells me to feel bad for them doesn’t mean that I will.

5+ stars. This one hit me in the feels. Mothers are often portrayed as having that "silent anger" and stuffing down their rage. And maybe there is a time for that, but not when fighting for your childs life. Beth is the Mama Bear that all Mothers pray to become when it counts the most. I felt all the things she was feeling and I left feeling seen as a parent.

Welp, we're broken now. Hearts Left Open broke us. If you're looking for a show that is going to grab your heart and twist it for a solid 60 minutes, this one is for you. We don't remember the last time we sat in a darkened Fringe theatre with tears streaming down our face. This one hurts right down to your soul, but that's truly the sign of a gifted playwright (Lee-Anna Semenya). Be brave. Open your heart to this one. Grief is love overflowing, after all. Bring your tissues.

Heart Wide Open is a story set in a hospital which was not clear until reading the pain text description that it was a children's hospital. Since it is set in a hospital they play hospital “white noise” which includes deeps and conversation noise. What I found most distracting was that it would stop and start. The actors were not microphone which they needed to work on their projection and sometimes would have their hands in front of their mouths. I was also confused by the lighting transaction; they seemed unnecessary for the story and made it look fluorescent. Though you could follow the plot without the nurses changing the drawing throughout and usually there was a month with drawing I found the contrast with the colour of month to the images around sometime blurred. For example April was green with tulips and the green leaves blurred to the letters.

In the show notes it does say death. I want to make clear that it is a children's death which I have learned can be a different type of trigger.

This show is an emotional masterpiece!! It deals with the difficult truths, the highs & lows, and the unrelenting waves of feelings when you are caring for someone with an illness. The actors are unbelievably talented and I am thrilled that I got to witness them tell this story. Particularly the main female characters, who left it all on the stage. Bravo. Fringers: do yourself a favor and see this show! There is an abundance of comedy shows at the Fringe this year, so this show is a rare opportunity to experience the vulnerability and raw talent that only dramatic theatre can give you.

What an amazing show, was so very heartfelt. The story will move you, and it had some great humor. The main characters draw you in and you get to join them in this journey even though you don’t really want to. Well written, well acted and a story that you need to see and hear. If you have ever been a caregiver you absolutely have to see this!!!

Hearts Left Open written and directed by Lee-Ana Semenyna and assistant directed by Mike Leoppky is an raw and emotional play about two women who start out as strangers but as time passes become family. The play, produced by Heart and Ash Productions takes place in the hallway of a childhood cancer floor at a hospital, following two women through the highs and lows that they and their loved ones fighting cancer have to endure. It’s a show that makes it’s audience laugh, cry and root for these children and their families. With every bit of bad news given by the doctors our hearts sink and with every good bit of news the audience couldn’t help but smile knowing that even in the darkest times, the is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel. The cast put so much care and love into their roles bringing the doctors, nurses and loved ones and their stories to life. Semenyna perfectly balanced the darker moments in the play with the hope and graciousness formed by the hospital staff, patients and loved ones. The show’s set was beautifully crafted, with children's art hanging on the wall, with one coloring page in particular showing the month being swapped out regularly to signify the time passing. If you have the chance to go see this touching play, it is definitely worth checking out. Just make sure you have some tissues on hand. You can catch Hearts Left Open at the Edmonton Fringe Festival August 15th - 24th, 2025 at the Nordic Studio Theater.