PodPlays-The Quartet: listening, through landscapes...

Conceived by Adrienne Wong with Martin Kinch, PodPlays-The Quartet is a series of site-specific radio plays that take participants on a walk through the geography of Vancouver.

Much like a museum audio guide museum, ‘audience members’ listen to portable media players and are guided on four 15 minutes walks by narration that combines story, music and directional cues.

I moved. I felt moved. My cells rejoiced. I wept for the pain of it. I desired inclusion and felt the rage of other-ness. I breathed in beauty. I drew boundaries. I saw this place where I was born through eyes both familiar and fresh. My mind was engaged by the strength of the storytelling and the evident care and strength given to technical execution.

Look Up created by Adrienne Wong & Joelysa Pankanea had me graphically absorb the city’s skylines, road views, shoe designers and the thick black chains bounding Gastown’s brick streets. There was a sense of urgency and architectural precision to both the site-lines and the story, which followed the twining history, love and present of two people. It began with us being asked to stare at a brick wall in the Woodward’s Atrium, then to close our eyes and… to imagine. We were then compelled to “walk briskly” through the rest of the piece – arriving finally at the end of the brick road where stands a historic Pump Station just east of Columbia on Alexander. I flung myself around lamp-posts for the sheer tragic romance of it, giggling like a schoolgirl.

Five Meditations on the Future City was created by Proximity Arts. Contrasting the urgency of Look Up, the meditations began with an acknowledgment of the elements – the stones and water visible on the Pump Station visual triggers for this beautiful reminder of the Earth’s nearness. We were directed to walk down Alexander st. towards Main, and told to check our selves and our alibis in a restaurant window. After pausing on the east corner of Main and Alexander just long enough to note the boundary and to be asked to utter it aloud, we walked up and over the overpass to Crab Beach. On the other side of the tracks there is a peaceful serene bay, the flattening marks of encroaching concrete, a vast parking lot…and a lingering question. A possible choice.

After having bathed in this ambiance of earth and sky, Portside Walk, created by David McIntosh & Aleister Murphy, took us briskly along Waterfront Road, passed chain link fence, under a brick and glass overpass, down into the bowels of Canada Place via the service road. We saw loading bays, lights, concrete, puddles, signage, all built up on a land infill covering the salt water of the Burrard Inlet. We walked past ‘fresh air intakes’ to surface at the recently completed Vancouver Convention Centre all the while being reminded of the incisive acts of oppression and decimation perpetrated by colonizers upon colonized, world-wide.

Finally G…Cordova created by Martin Kinch and Noah Drew was a voyeuristic opportunity to walk up Hornby st. witnessing a conversation between mother and son. This exploration of dementia and loss reminded me that life goes on past the signposts towards the vanishing points of future and past. The clever interfacing of narrative, street signs, and directives meant that at times it was unclear how I should be responding or where I should go. As a listener, this brought me more deeply into the embodied experience of disorientation and the loss of once trusted points of reference.

Each PodPlay stood alone – unique in its strength and weaknesses. Each piece wove together well into a metta-narrative within the City of Vancouver - moving those listening through landscapes both internal and external. I am grateful to have been part of the experience.