ROUGH TRADE is full-length rock musical set in the gritty, glamorous 1980’s. It is based on the life of Canadian Rock Icon Carole Pope’s real life brother Howie, who  moved to New York in the mid 80s in pursuit of rock n’ roll, sexual freedom and a new life. He lands in the middle of The AIDs crisis, becomes a founding member of ACT UP and tragically sacrifices his life for love.

Using the hits of Rough Trade, along with Canadian Songwriter Hall of famer Carole Pope’s newer compositions,  the show examines  the role we all play in remembering the ones we loved while advancing the causes they cared about the most. With incredible, glamorous 80s design elements bring to life the best looks and sounds of the 1980s, the show takes us back in time to an era when art and activism coalesced around a global pandemic that robbed the world of thousands of our brothers, sisters and best friends.