The Atomic Tradition produced by So Red feels like an accurate look at dysfunction and all of the ways you should not handle a disagreement. This 40-minute play is showing at the Toronto Fringe Festival.
Continue reading The Atomic Tradition (So Red) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review
Excerpt from press release:
After undergoing surgery, Kate is left with a brain injury, completely upending her sensory perception and relationship to the world. As she struggles to navigate her new life, she looks to her deceased grandmother, a medium who communicated with the spirit of famous Canadian neuro-surgeon Wilder Penfield, channeling his message of hope for a conscious mind that outlives the physical brain. At the core of Kate’s path to recovery is a desire to create art that speaks to her new perceptions, but the process is fraught with seemingly unsurmountable obstacles.
Those living with brain injury know that the linear narrative of a triumphant journey of recovery is often not available. The experience of living with a compromised brain is difficult to endure and explain. In BRAIN STORM, we look to theatre to provide us the tools to explore the unexplainable. By investigating the experience using movement, sound, and image, we attempt to display the results of our own personal surgery – the dissection and examination of moments too mysterious to describe in words. We ask the audience to approach this piece as both the surgeon and patient: with an attitude of curiosity crossed with vulnerability, allowing oneself to be explored and even prodded through the process.
Creation History: Director Taliesin McEnaney’s grandmother was a ‘script mentalist medium’ who channeled written messages from the spirit realm. One of her spirit guides was Dr. Wilder Penfield. Fast- forward 40 years and Taliesin is dealing with a major brain injury within her own family and struggling with many of the questions that Penfield devoted his work to: sensory perception, epileptic seizures, and cognitive changes. Using the scripts from her grandmother’s writings as a textual resource, and translating them into a physical and visual style, BRAIN STORM is Taliesin’s metabolization of these decade-spanning events which asks the question: are our brains magic, machines – or both? BRAIN STORM is co-created and performed by Hayley Carr, Maïza Dubhé, Shayna Virginillo, and Alexandra Montagnese. Conceived of and directed by Taliesin McEnaney, set and costume designed by Will Bezek with lighting design by Claire Hill. LUCID LUDIC is partnering with the Brain Injury Society of Toronto (BIST) on this production to raise awareness of the challenges facing those living with brain injury.
Details
Performances
Photo credit: Dahlia Katz. Featuring: Maïza Dubhé.
Dancemakers presents Dana Michel’s powerful new show in Toronto as part of 2017 MinifestYellow Towel had its Toronto premiere on Saturday at the Winchester Street Theatre as part of Dancemakers’ 2017 Minifest. Before seeing Yellow Towel, I had never been to a dance performance. Immediately, I was caught off guard by the intimacy of the venue. There was no elevated stage providing further separation between the audience and the performer, just a plain white floor stretched out in front of a row of seats. Continue reading Review: Yellow Towel (Dancemakers’ 2017 Minifest)
From press release
Written and performed by Joylyn Secunda, The Moaning Yoni combines dialogue, physical comedy, dance and puppetry to transmit a hallucinatory coming of age story.
In The Moaning Yoni, Zoë, a college student desperately trying to be normal, resists the dictatorial pressure of her anthropomorphic vagina (yoni), a no-bullshit Brooklyn-Jew with the wisdom of a sage. Together they cross the battlefield of Sex-Ed class, Tinder, and Tantric hippies.
Joylyn Secunda plays many other zany characters including Crystal, a cannabis lube ceremony facilitator – Aspen, a VW nomad and self-proclaimed mystic – and Ava, Zoë’s Dionysian nympho roommate.
“The show reflects an individual millennial experience, and yet is universal in that it explores the need for acceptance,” says writer/performer, Joylyn Secunda. “It’s a blend of innocent wonder and wild fantasies.”
Zoë’s character is inspired by Joylyn Secunda’s experiences in a sex-filled world, and her journey to identifying as grey-asexual.
This show contains strong language and sexual themes. Rated 18+.
Performances
Details
Photo of Joylyn Secunda by Emily Cooper Photography
Stories and history are major themes in Toronto’s theatre scene this week! And of course, with Pride month well under way, there is no shortage of queer-centred offerings. Our assistant editor Jess is on hand to highlight a few of her top picks in red. Check them out below the cut:
Continue reading Playlistings in Toronto for the week of June 19th