Jan. 13, 2010 - Issue #743: Broken Embraces
CANOE THEATRE FESTIVAL: Expanding horizons
The Canoe Festival promises theatregoers fresh types of performance
But for the sheer plenty of theatre in our town, there isn't scads of diversity in how it's actually presented. Perhaps because of the phenomenal success of conventional theatre, the Edmonton dramatic diet tends to be fairly meat and potatoes, even if in our case that's usually filet mignon and a roasted-garlic-and-chives mash. Still, as any gourmand knows, it's always nice to broaden your palate.
"We've become very self-sufficient, and we're able to do excellent theatre without cross-pollination," explains Michael Clark, artistic director at Workshop West and curator of their upcoming Canoe Festival, dedicated to expanding the horizons of theatrical practice for both artists and audiences in Edmonton. "There's all kinds of stuff that doesn't happen here. And I'll say it again, I love the theatre in this town, but it's pretty straight up."
Now entering its third year, the Canoe Festival is devoted to producing works from both home and abroad that are decidedly off-kilter. At times that can mean simply an unconventional story, but more often it's a unique way to tell a story, a different way to experience theatre than the stylistically sedate process of a writer giving something to a director who puts some actors on a stage in front of the audience. And while most of the theatre is enjoyable purely in its own right, Clark admits that one of his main goals is to show Edmonton what's out there, to prod and poke the city to think about theatre in different ways.
"We don't have a benefit of a High Performance Rodeo or a Push festival to bring the weird-ass ideas of what's going on to our town," he says animatedly. "Anything that's living continues to grow, and theatre practice has changed a lot. Edmonton theatre is fabulous, but it's not as diverse as what theatre practice is out there. If you were to look at Vancouver, Vancouver is a national and international powerhouse because there are a variety of companies that are producing diverse, really diverse, theatre in all kinds of different ways."
A brief look at this year's line-up will give you a solid idea of what kinds of diversity Clark is talking about. Locally, there's the living marionette drama of Grumplestock's, the poetry-tango hybrid of Blood Opera and the site-specific, physically reimagined take on Hedda Gabler at Rutherford House. From away, Clark has brought in the comedic technical gymnastics of Nova Scotia's Lauchie, Liza & Rory, the scientific explanations of Dedicated to the Revolutions and, one of the most unique shows to ever come through Edmonton, Etiquette, a British production that involves nothing more than two people and four headphones in a public café (in our case Leva), listening to a play while life goes on around them.
It's that kind of experimentation and verve that attracted Kristine Nutting, whose raucous and raunchy back-door peep show PIG will be returning to Edmonton, to a venue like Canoe.
"I was trying to create a show that people would want to go to that had a story, but that was more like a rock show, because I find that a lot of people, if you tell them, 'Let's go to the theatre,' it's like a chore," explains Nutting, who admits to being a bit nervous for this return engagement, as it will be the first time PIG is seen on an actual theatre stage, as opposed to the strip clubs it has shown at up to this point. "I don't want that 'should' feeling. You should eat more salad: hopefully people want to go. I wanted to create an event-type thing that had good music and that you wanted to go to." V
Tue, Jan 19 - Sun, Jan 31
Canoe Theatre Festival
Featuring Etiquette, PIG, Hedda Gabler, Grumplestock's, Blood Opera,
Dedicated to the Revolutions, Lauchie, Liza & Rory
Various locations
workshopwest.org for full details and schedule
New comments for this entry have been turned off and any existing ones are hidden. We apologize for any inconvenience.
