I'm Doing This For You - Uno Festival 2017

Haley McGee, Never Mind the Noise

in Vancouver at the rEvolver Festival May 31st through June 3rd.

Do you ever wonder ... why do women spend so much time beautifying?  The hair, the makeup, the spine altering heels ... why?  Do we do it for ourselves?  Let's be honest.  We do it for ... them.  Men.  And when all that doesn't impress them, what do we do then?

Haley McGee's character (the blond woman with nice legs who has no name), she seems willing to do anything to get this guy to notice her, to appreciate her, to love her.  If only he'd love her!  He doesn't seem to be much of a catch, though, she tells us he has body image issues, he's trying to be a comedian but she'd prefer he get a "real job."  He makes fun of her in his comedy routine.  But ... he doesn't get mad at her when she's sad.  He makes her laugh.  They had great sex.  And that's enough for her.

On the surface Haley's show is hilarious.  Outrageous.  Silly.  But peel back a few layers, throw off the wig, wipe off the make-up, and take a good look.  Who are you trying to impress?  And why?

If only we had been a better audience.  She tried so hard, she gave us vodka, and cupcakes.  But, like her, and us, the props weren't perfect either.  They weren't vegan.  They weren't gluten free.  Some of us were left out.  Nothing's ever good enough.  It's our fault.  It's the lighting person's fault.  If only he'd show up, he'd make it all right.

Will the unnamed woman find what she's looking for in Vancouver?  She said she's gonna try again at the rEvolver Festival May 31st through June 3rd.  Reserve your ticket now.

Burn Job - Uno Festival 2017

TJ Dawe, Placeholder Productions

May 26 7 pm, Saturday May 27th 8:00 pm

  

For seasoned Festivalers, TJ Dawe needs no introduction.  He's an award winning writer/performer/director who found his niche literally on the Fringe, outside the dominant conventional theatrical scene.  (Although, a script of his was picked up for a relatively major motion picture called The F Word so who knows what's next).

In his latest small, local production, TJ spins a coming of age tale based (presumably) on his own life adventures growing up in Burnaby, and reflected through a lens of psychedelic intoxication.  In the first half we revisit boyhood antics (which seem soooo different to what most girls get up to) as seen through an acid trip.  In the second half, a more philosophic inquisition into life and love and coping mechanisms revealed while under the spell of holotrophic breathwork at a Buddhist Monastery.  

Despite all his successes, TJ remains a friendly, approachable, down to earth local guy.  He appears to be living the dream - he's found his life's work, he's into self exploration and development, he's sorting himself out and growing and writing and teaching and performing to audiences who clearly adore him.

The only thing I don't understand is why there were empty seats at his preview performance.  Fill those seats tonight, people, this guy is still young and with plenty of bright future ahead.  Don't miss your chance to learn how he got to this here and now.  "There's a place for you now, if you choose to take it."  

Last Train In - Uno Festival 2017

Adam Grant Warren, rice and beans theatre

May 24th, May 25th 7 pm

Hurray for Uno Festival's choice to include a show by and about a guy in a wheelchair!!  There's so much we take for granted in our healthy bodies, in this technology infused world.  Knowing someone who's differently abled, even for a brief time at a theatre performance, reminds us about that. 

Adam tells a tragic story, a story that shines light on the inadequacies and sometimes cruelty of our structured world, but he tells it with humour and even compassion for our able-bodied disabilities.

Adam reveals, for example, the somersaults our brains perform when we see someone in a wheelchair who looks like they need some help.  Some of us do the "I want to help, but I don't want to offend" dance.  Others, Adam shares, aren't so confusedly kind.

I work with people of various "abilities." One guy, in a wheelchair, loves to travel on buses and trains and ferries.  He jokes about going to Vancouver to visit with his dad ... gotta take the city bus though, don't take Wilson's, because it's not accessible.  And then he giggles.  But it's not funny, really.  My friend has a developmental (brain) challenge in addition to his physical one, but he totally gets that the world works better for fully "abled" people.  He often suggests we should launch a picket until we get the services we need.  I'm with him on that!!

Adam is not challenged cerebrally, he's a teacher.  His wheelchair is manual whereas my friend's is fully automatic.  But some of the challenges they share are common.  Even elderly people have some difficulty getting around our youth-oriented society!  Spend an hour of your day wondering how you'd get where you're going, or do what you're doing, with any kind of a physical or mental challenge.

After watching Adam manoeuver with tremendous skill during his hour and a half performance, I waited at a bus stop alongside a man in a similar chair.  My brain did the dance ... "should I talk to him about the play, or would that be presumptuous?"  

Now, my brain is challenged with the degree of honesty I want to share about this play.  Oh, what the heck, I think Adam would appreciate knowing how I feel.  I absolutely loved seeing him on stage, watching the reactions of others watching him on stage.  His story evoked emotions, and offered a lot to think about.  But I felt there was some redundancy in his story telling, and it dragged on a bit.  I'm also wondering why the climatic event, his finding success in that train station after midnight, wasn't portrayed closer to the end of the play. 

Thank you Adam, and also to rice and beans theatre company.  I hope we see a lot more performances by and about differently abled people!

p.s. I believe it was David Turner, while city Mayor, who helped implement the accessible buses so folks like Adam can get around.  And it was Christy Clark's government who, in the fall of 2016, took away their affordable annual bus passes.  

Small Town Hoser Spic - Uno Festival 2017

Pedro Chamale, rice and beans theatre

Tuesday May 23rd, Wednesday May 24th 6:30 pm

Pedro (or Pedro's character?) was born to Guatemalan parents in Chetwynd BC, population 3100.  The only time he experienced racism, he says, was when he was walking with his young Portugese friend and some other kids called them "Pakis" and told them to go back where they came from.  (aside: I remember there was a bullying attitude towards a couple of brown kids in my small town rural community too.  Maybe they weren't from Pakistan either?  After I left that community I learned the word is "racism."  But I still don't get why we were supposed to hate Pakis?)

Aside from this one experience Pedro paints a picture of an idyllic small town existence where everyone knows everyone, in a place that's "a throwback to a simpler time."  He doesn't remember any blatant hatred between the settlers and the First Nations kids, though he does mention that they lived in their own communities. There are parties (lots of parties) and the greatest challenge for Pedro and friends is finding someone to bootleg their booze.

Pedro's tough life lessons begin when he moves to Vancouver. He had previously seen himself as just another white guy, but in the big city he learns that he's not so white after all.  He also learns that he's a bit racist himself, until he learns about Canada's shameful history of Residential Schools, the Chinese Head Tax, and the internment of Japanese citizens.  Then his understanding of "Canada" begins to change.  People want to know where he's from, and aren't satisfied when he says "Chetwynd." He begins to ask the big questions ... "Why is my lineage the thing that defines me?"

How can a person embrace the culture of their blood relatives when they've had no experience, aside from plentiful guacamole, to learn that culture?  Pedro can understand why his parents chose to leave Guatemala after the United Fruit Company (with help from the CIA) took over the country, they wanted to build a better life for themselves and their children.  But with no need speak his parents' language, no extended family to teach him the history of the land and its people, no connection to the land at all, Pedro struggles to understand why people see a Hispanic when they look at him.

The first night of Small Town Hoser Spic's Uno Festival performance was sold out so if you want to witness a man tell this humorous and somewhat disturbing story while chugging beer and vodka (no kidding!), go early.  Or, you might look for it on YouTube or Vimeo because someone was recording it on preview night.

4 1/2 (ig)noble truths - 2017 Uno Festival

Thomas McKechnie and Why Not Theatre

Thursday May 18th 9:00 pm, Saturday May 20th 6:30 pm, Sunday May 21st 6:00 pm

Thomas tells us we will witness a performance lecture on clinical depression.  He identifies the scientific nomenclature that characterizes this all too common state and, informing us how theatre can give form to this formless thing, launches into a poetic and meteoric rant of discovery and insight.

If you've ever clued into the absolute absurdities of so much that is identified as "mainstream" culture on this planet, you'll appreciate Thomas' perspective.  Search "quotes about insanity" and you'll find many, throughout history, who have expressed this thought including Jiddu Krishnamurti who is attributed with "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

Embracing what are (presumably) his own cerebral challenges, Thomas uses eggs to tell his story.  Each egg represents an individual being.  Lots of metaphor there, for sure.  When there's only one egg remaining the story turns to very personal introspection, and prop after prop after prop pile onto that single egg which, amazingly, withstands unbelievable pressure.

That's all I'm going to say about that.  You'll need to go see Thomas' performance if you want to know any more.  But if you'll forgive me my own personal rant, I'd like to identify the source of my own, and I believe much of the population's, clinical (or non-clinical) depression.

Thomas (unknowingly?) touches upon it when he talks about the banality of food.  "I'm chewing because that's what people do," he says.  Every day humans stuff something called "food" into their bodies.  Often it's just a big hassle, having to plan it, prepare it, clean up after it.  The smell, the mess, the blood.  How and why did the very basic sustenance of life become so annoying?  Is it because somewhere in our very powerful subconscious we know ... this stuff called "food" has a source?  Do you ever think about where your "food" comes from?  Do you know it involves unthinkable horrific torture and the absolutely unnecessary murder of millions, billions, of innocent creatures, ongoingly?  If you do, and you continue to participate in it, is it any wonder you get depressed?!

I understand depression.  Been there, done that.  My cure?  I stopped stuffing torture and death into my own face.  Gave it up completely, nearly 17 years ago (after a full decade trying to convince myself that being a vegetarian meant I wasn't part of the torture and murder cycle).  Now I know, and I've never felt better, spiritually, physically, emotionally.  The world's still a crazy place, that hasn't changed, it still makes me sad to witness mass extinction and climate change etc.  But I can fend off the big depression by reminding myself that I'm a long ways away from all that daily violence.  That's powerful!

During his performance Thomas selects one person from the audience to help illustrate the common human need for compassion and understanding.  On Saturday he chose the person sitting next to me, my friend Nancy.  He whispered a secret in her ear.  I won't tell you what that secret is.

Thomas is performing once more in this year's Uno Festival, tonight at 6:00 pm at the Intrepid Theatre Club.  Go ... maybe he'll tell you the secret.

Do What You Love - 2017 Uno Festival

Nathaniel Justiniano, Naked Empire Bouffon Company

Friday May 19th 8:30 pm and Saturday May 20th 8:30 pm

I recently saw a photo of earth taken from somewhere inside the rings of Saturn.  We are so very teeny tiny, it's nearly impossible to imagine how so many miraculous and diverse beings have evolved from, and still inhabit (notwithstanding the current mass extinction of species due to global climate catastrophe), this little blue-green planet.  

Who better to explain the creation and entire history of the universe than a large bearded hunchback donning a pink bike helmet, converse high tops, mountain climbing equipment, and a hot water bottle?

It gets better.  Three separate and distinct characters inhabit this one being, each desperate to tell their own version of things.  The Narrator generally wins out, directing and re-directing the other two, and even (spoiler alert) rearranging parts of the audience as a way to demonstrate how we can each Do What we Love.

Because that's the point of living this little life on this little planet, isn't it, to Do What we Love?  

On the surface it appears that there's nothing, absolutely nothing, that is not completely bizarre about this production.  When's the last time, for example, you felt empathy for a personified hot water bottle?  But afterwards you might begin to think ... why do I always want more?  And why is it never enough?  Am I happy?  Am I doing what I love?  

Or maybe you won't think any of those things.  I'm pretty sure you'll get a laugh, either way, so don't miss tonight's performance 8:30 at the Intrepid Theatre Club.

Audio with Heather Lindsay, Executive Director at Intrepid Theatre

Click here for a 20 minute chat with Heather Lindsay, Curator of the Uno Festival.

After the Beep - 2017 UNO Festival

World Premiere May 18, 8:30 pm
Also Friday May 19, 8:30 pm, at Intrepid Theatre Club

Remember when Mary Poppins says she's "practically perfect in every way" and the children aren't quite sure what to respond?  That's kind of how I feel After the Beep. 

The world premiere performance of "After the Beep" was, for me, part "oh my god she had such an awesome dad who trusted her and let her have so much independence" and part "I wish I'd kept more evidence from my youth."  Between television's "The Goldbergs" (where an 80s kid's VCR tapes form the basis for a weekly sitcom) and this theatrical sharing of telephone message tapes, it's clear that no matter what kind of youth and childhood you survived, it's funnier now.  Especially when you can offer up real live teenage artifacts like VCR or cassette tapes.  
  
Regardless of your current age, if you survived your teen years you'll likely relate strongly to the memories Pamela's answering machine tapes reveal - the goofy nicknames, made-up language sounds, creatively spliced messages and sounds of friends having fun with technology.  And if, after teenhood, you chose the path of parenthood (or even if you didn't) you'll be inspired by Pamela's reflections on the mysterious continuum of incessant uncertainty that follows the flow of life as we move from one stage to another.

My only criticism, and I mean it to be constructive, is that I wanted something to look at.  Pamela is very pretty, with lively facial expressions, but the only thing to look at aside from her were graphs detailing the variety of calls she collected.  Those were fun.  But I would suggest she also project photos of the people she's introducing us to.  Or if that's too personal, photos of people who look like the people she's talking about.  Photos of her house, the neighbourhood, the Hollywood Cinema where she worked, that sort of thing.  And, or, a written transcript of each call.  The caller's words were sometimes unintelligible, often because the audience was laughing.  I feel like I missed hearing a lot of what was being said, after the beep.

Perfect Pamela is an evocative story-teller whose autobiographical tale weaves in and out and among and through the answering machine taped evidence of her youth, documenting all kinds of memories - happy and sad, silly and scary.  She'll be performing "After the Beep" again on May 19th at 6:30 pm at Intrepid's Theatre Club.  Check her out at pamelabethel.ca, and get there early ... her premiere performance was sold out.  

WTF ... What's Theatre For?

2017 Uno Festival Keynote Address from Daniel MacIvor

There are a lot of things I don't know.  It's humbling to admit that.  Before today I didn't know, for example, anything about Daniel MacIvor.  

But I'm reviewing the UNO festival as a CFUV correspondent (I love theatre even if I've never studied it) and so I did a little research. After a cursory search on my little hand-held encyclopaedia I deduced that Daniel is a man consumed with the mystery of death.  He had recently become fascinated with Spalding Grey's death leap from the Staten Island Ferry (another respected artist I'd never heard of), and there was a pivotal moment in his life when he realized the spark of life (or spirit, or soul, or whatever you want to call it) is not the same thing as the body it inhabits.   

That's what I held as knowledge about Daniel MacIvor.  Oh, and that he's an award winning Canadian theatre icon whose works have been translated into many languages.  I went to WTF anticipating a philosophic, perhaps existentialist, exploration of the history of theatre.  "The Greeks went to the theatre to learn valuable life lessons, whereas in Shakespearean times ..."

Daniel's presentation, as any theatre student would likely have told me, would be nothing like that. 

I learned that Daniel stumbled into his life's work after his libido took him to Dalhousie where he found himself auditioning for "Our Town" rather than pursuing journalism, the only "talent" anyone had ever identified in him.  I learned that Daniel doesn't really separate his work from his life.  His friends are his colleagues, they share life and art together.  I learned more about the stories of death that influenced him, and that he describes the spark of life (or spirit, or soul) as "the thing in the body."

The person known as Daniel MacIvor, it turns out, is an entertaining and delightful "thing in the body," able to reflect on his life with the kind of humour that only the distance of age can provide. 

Daniel talked a bit about theatre offering the possibility for communion between the people on stage and the people in the audience, and the possibility for transformation that this relationship allows.  He described theatre (writing, directing, acting) as a job, he also talked about it as something spiritual.  He explained theatre as a process through which we can touch God as we discover our own ability to control Time and Space.  He said it's something intentional, he also said it's completely spontaneous.  At one point he described theatre as "pretending with a bunch of people and then going out and drinking beer."  

During the Q and A an audience member suggested that theatre is about compassion.  We learn to walk in the shoes of another, to see and experience the world from their perspective, and that awakens compassion in us.  (If you hear Daniel incorporate that idea into a future WTF presentation, know that he already told its author that he'd be stealing it from her.)

I got the feeling that Daniel MacIvor isn't really certain What Theatre's For, and that his presentation was as much about trying to figure that out as it was about trying to explain it.  Maybe the purpose of Theatre is, ultimately, indefinable.

No doubt we'd all be a lot worse off without Theatre, so whatever you think it's for, get out there and see an UNO show or two.  All the preview nights are Pay What You Can.  Check out the schedule at intrepidtheatre.com.  Uno Fest runs May 17-27, 2017.