The largest juried performance festival in Canada featuring predominantly new Canadian work, SummerWorks returns this summer with a wide spectrum and variety of theatre works, live art, music, and performance series.
Like in previous years, I’ve decided to put together a pre-festival list for you to consider when creating your festival schedule.
Theatre & Live Art
Alzheimer That Ends Heimer
Synopsis: “…a musical about the lighter side of dementia; a cross between a Power Point presentation and “Marat-Sade”; and a love story involving a father, a son, and two hot twenty-somethings who keep losing track of who they are.”
Entitlement
Synopsis: “A ssatire about an out of work screenwriter who takes a job teaching scriptwriting to college students. A timely play about the transformation of education to edutainment and the growing power of an entitled generation to assert their will…”
A Scene from “ENTITLEMENT” a play by Sugith Varughese from Sugith Varughese on Vimeo.
*Stars Karen Robinson, whose work I’m a fan of.
Final Savage Land
Synopsis: “Inspired by Arvo Pärt’s piano composition, Für Alina, and part Grimm’s fairytale, Final Savage Land is a choreographed duet that delves into the the beauty and horrors of co-dependency and the savagery of survival.”
Hello For Dummies (Live Art Series)
Synopsis: “The audience is split up into pairs of strangers and sent out to sit on a bench together. This journey, and the conversation they find themselves having on the bench (their lines fed to them via headphones), all happens without them ever seeing each other’s face.”
*I attended a preview of this live art performance, and enjoyed the premise of it. There were some technical glitches but once you get past these, it is an interesting experience. Even if you’re shy, I’d suggest you try out.
How Can I Forget? (2013 Artists-in-Residence)
Synopsis: The show “explores the tension between remembering and forgetting: what we forget that we ought to remember, and what we remember that we want to forget. It is a study of memory through fraught relationships.”
TRAILER: How Can I Forget? A Multimedia Dream from Sook-Yin Lee on Vimeo.
Maria Gets A New Life
Synopsis: “Maria Grace the First Nation’s single mom is also a wanted fugitive. After three months on the road, Maria moves her two kids into a vacant house. As the authorities close in, Maria is faced with her last hour with her children.”
*From the creators of huff, a one-man show from last year’s festival. This show was very poignant and powerful.
nanny: maroon warrior queen
Synopsis: “biomyth monodrama in dub that recounts the life of jamaica’s first and only national shero, queen nanny of the maroons. the play follows nanny’s life as the great spiritual, military, political, and maternal head figure of the maroons and gives an in depth treatment of the system of the transatlantic slave trade that existed in jamaica.”
*This work is by d’bi young, whose work I’ve been following as well from previous Summerworks. I’m keen on seeing and hearing her share this story with us.
Schützen (International Series – Denmark/Germany)
Synopsis: “combines relaxation yoga, release techniques and tai chi with shooting shows at the Berlin Schützengemeinschaft von 1882 and a training program for drone pilots at the US Nevada Control Station. Schützen challenges the notion of healthy and unhealthy interests, good and evil bodies and includes the audience in a study of present-day war bodies.”
The Ballad Of Weedy Peetstraw
Synopsis:”A backwoods boy, dreaming of life and fame in the big city, makes a pact with the Devil (and his agents Mister Fleas and Hellhound) in exchange for supernatural prowess on the banjo in this comic bluegrass opera featuring death, love, betrayal, redemption, soul-stirring music and a hardscrabble kind of poetry.”
Hopefully, these will help you narrow down your choices. However, be sure to check out as many other performances as possible. Stay tuned as I’ll have have Part II of my pre-festival picks from the Music and Performance Bar Series. The full festival listing, schedule and ticketing info can be found at summerworks.ca.
