Feb. 20, 2008 - Issue #644: Be Kind Rewind

Firefly flies by night again

 The golden days of Vaudeville may lie back in the 1930s, but most of the performance styles involved still exist—it’s just a rare to see the mash-up of circus spectacle acts presented in the same, under-one-roof style that was so popular in the early 20th century. However, Annie Dugan is looking to resurrect that magic for a few evenings with Firefly Theatre’s third annual Fly By Night.


According to Dugan, the two-night, multiple-act vaudevillian showcase gives both artists and audiences a chance to recapture that old-timey spectacle without having to wait for the ground to thaw and the summer festival season to begin.
 

“A lot of the artists who work in [the] field do festivals in the summer and corporate gigs in the wintertime,” she explains. “You don’t see a lot of public variety shows. So there’s two reasons we do this: one is for the public in Edmonton to get the chance to go see a variety show [without having] to wait until the Fringe or street performers. The other reason is it gives the artist the chance to perform for the public; you can’t invite your friends and family to the Telus Fundraising Gala.”
 

Included in the show are aerial acts (of which Dugan is performing one), clowning, a mind-reader, a magician and a number of musical guests. Hosted by local ukulele duo The Be Arthurs, Dugan promises that Fly By Night will provide a necessary escape from the rigours of daily life.

“In circus vaudeville, you go to be entertained: there is nothing heavy, there is no social-political agenda that will be fulfilled. If you want meaning and politics, don’t come,” she laughs. “This is about coming in and leaving behind your rent payments, your winter driving issues, and your life dilemmas.”

 

Dugan, who serves as the Creative Director of Firefly Theatre, has also been taking on students since the company’s inception, and unsurprisingly, some of her most apt pupils are also performing in the show. They come from all walks of life, but according to Dugan, some people just naturally gravitate towards this type of performance.
 

“This is our fourth year [teaching, and] I’ve still got students performing with us now who started the first year,” she explains. “In the circus, they used to say that ‘you’ve got sawdust in your blood.’ We don’t use sawdust anymore, but if the circus bug bites you, it grabs you, and it’s super-addictive.” V



Fri, Feb 22 and Sat Feb 23 (8 pm)

Fly By Night

Starring the Be Arthurs, Ron Pearson, Tyler Dawson, Annie Dugan, Molly Flood

and many more 

La Cité Francophone (8627 - 91 St), $22

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