A Play For the Living in a Time of Extinction - Katie Mitchell/Headlong @ Barbican

It is simultaneously full of artifice, and absent it entirely. Katie Mitchell’s bicycle powered one-woman show (performed passionabely at The Barbican by Lydia West) is as much spoken word poem as it is lecture, as much monologue as it is news article. And that’s to its credit; while we are given a story and much to look at, it feels inherently un-play-like. Instead we are confronted with a barrage of information and literal labour - 8 cyclists ride for the duration of the 90+ minute performance to power the minimal lighting grid and projections. We are reminded of the energy and effort required to create theatre; that even those of us who consciously consumed our way to that point in the day, via public transport and reusable bags filled with bread from eco-conscious bakeries, and with coffee in reusable cups will sit in a theatre and absorb spectacle which takes resource from this planet. A play about a time of extinction, too.

The production leaned a little too heavily into a few moments of audience participation for my taste - the early pieces engaging with the audience I thought really fruitful and useful to the story, however while the moments bringing audience up on stage had payoff from a visual sense later in the production when the choir came on stage, it felt contrived and almost like a way to fill time, which is rarely good.

Overall the marriage of the text and its performance were strong; I just wonder whether there is any benefit of performing this for a room of reusable bag using Barbican goers. Will it change anything?

review. The Chemical Valley Project - Broadleaf Theatre @ Theatre Passe Muraille

This is a late-arriving blog post, with my regrets. I caught a Saturday matinee of The Chemical Valley Project the other week; I was immediately intrigued by the welcoming nature of the space, with the lead actor speaking to each audience member as they entered, and inviting them on to the performance space to look at additional photos from the research on the project. If one had come to the show without a lot of context (as my two friends had) this would have been a touch confusing, but also intriguing. Certainly, though, it set a really great tone for the afternoon and the information and experience we were about to share.

The play focuses on the research journey of one actor/creator as he explored information relating to The Chemical Valley in the Sarnia region, and particularly in reference to two first nations people who supported and guided his journey. The script held a lot of information, which could very well have been overwhelming, however on the whole it was not. The staging and use of video to hear the actual voices of the indigenous guides was unique, and useful in terms of ensuring that it wasn’t someone else appropriating their story and experience. All of that said, for me the script & production felt a bit disjointed; almost like there were too many topics, as the manner in which they were organized left me feeling like there were a lot of starting points that weren’t always clearly connected to one another. What was the story this was ultimately trying to tell?

That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it; the visual aspects were really beautiful and the use of the space was inventive. My bigger qualm was with the style of the performance - after setting up a beautiful, relaxed, non-performative style in the pre-show, the performance itself felt forced and ultimately did a disservice to the material, for me. I simply wanted the actor to exist in the space, with the aid of some clever staging (seriously, the use of scale was magnificent), to share this journey with me. It didn’t need anything else.

All that said, I definitely recommend seeing it if it has a re-mount.