Magnetic North

I strongly believe that anyone should be able to tell not only their own stories but also those of people from other cultures, countries and backgrounds. That said, I have now seen two productions at two successive Magnetic North Festivals that have been spearheaded by large theatre companies in association with smaller Aboriginal organizations.

where the blood mixes

A play that is simply staged with few props, Sour Brides production of So Many Doors begins, well, at the beginning: a giant sepia mobile hangs above the stage while below it the four actors, each with only a chair, start their baby lives to its tinny wind up tune. As the movement work builds through each stage of development, one actor kneels in prayer; all look anxious.

Riding George Clooney

In April 14, 1912 two actor/dancers (Patrick Conner and Matthew Romantini) play the Marconi officers on board the Titanic– it is a time before cell phones, before even ship-to-shore telephones – anything that needs to be said to someone not on board the ship must flow through these two conduits of communication, as a result they become custodians of the most intimate and prosaic messages: “I love you”, or “I forgot to water the geraniums”.

titanic, would you board her? Photo Credit: Lindsay Anne Black

Here’s a sobering fact about my allotted time on this planet: I was alive while the residential school system was in place in this country.

where the blood mixes

It wasn’t lightly that I walked into Performance Works Theatre, knowing I was attending a performance about genocide. I tried to be good humored about it: “Ta-tah, off to see a little play about human atrocity – see you tomorrow!” I exclaimed to my colleagues as I left the office.

Goodness

Strips of white elastic hang from the ceiling. They create an ever-changing backdrop which sometimes feels like a forest, sometimes like a curtain drawn to give us sight into Townsville - a small town filled with the remaining few survivors from some unspoken world disaster. Townsville brings forth what the world would be like if it were run by a gaggle of showboaty teenagers. Sometimes insightful, sometimes self-centered, but always a full character exploration.

Townsville, they've got talent on a string

Michael Redhill's play Goodness is partly inspired by the genocide in Rwanda, as the program notes explain. Yet the veteran Toronto playwright has chosen to craft a script where the conversations about goodness, war, ethics and revenge, could apply to any of the genocides that have happened in the last century.

Goodness

For me, the success of April 14, 1912 hangs on two death scenes. One is of a man, the 1st Marconi (telegraph) Officer on board the Titanic (Matthew Romantini), drowning in the sea. Both legs and one hand are on the bare stage floor, but the rest of his body is convincingly in an environment hostile to human life. And he surrenders to it at last.

April 14, 1912; photo credit: Lindsay Anne Black

All the previous Magnetic North Festivals have featured a production showcasing the students and emerging artists of the host city. This year, it’s the turn of Vancouver’s The Chop Theatre in a co-production with Studio 58, Langara’s well-regarded theatre program. The Chop are probably the coolest of the younger generation of theatre companies in Vancouver.

Townsville, where's sylvia?

Magnetic North: scripts are back in with Vancouver New Play Festival

In keeping with Magnetic North’s mandate as a national festival, this year’s edition of the Vancouver New Play Festival has a distinctly national feel. Moved from its usual May slot to June in order to coincide with Magnetic North, about half the scripts in this year’s play-reading series are from other parts of the country.

The New Play Festival – which opened last night with a playwrights cabaret – has been running for over 30 years and features staged readings of new scripts from a mixture of experienced and emerging playwrights. Not only are the readings a chance to hear new work in development, it is also an opportunity to see some of Vancouver’s top actors working in a more casual setting, scripts in hand. There is a rough joy to the New Play Festival and the chance to “discover” a new work and then act a bit smug when a full production arrives a year or so later (or, better still, become a proselytizer for this exciting play/playwright that no one else has heard of yet).

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 
Author Name: 
Andrew Templeton
Photograph Caption: 
No, not discarded playwrights but Tragic Animals (14 June), photo by Mark van Bakel
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