We had our turn the first time the festivities left Ottawa, in 2004. This is Calgary’s year to host Magnetic North, the decade-old national festival of contemporary English-Canuck theatre that returns every second year to Ottawa, in alternation with another Canadian city. It’s a national showcase; it’s an identity builder for English theatre in this country. And it’s happening just down the road, June 13 to 23.
The mainstage line-up, curated by artistic director Brenda Leadlay, isn’t a large-cast affair. It’s led by Ignorance, the latest from Calgary’s Old Trout Puppet Workshop, the wildly inventive “puppet documentary” about the evolution of human happiness from caveman times. It premiered at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, and ran last month here in the Theatre Network season at the Roxy.
Raoul Bhaneja’s much-travelled solo version of Hamlet – two hours, 17 characters – has been visiting theatres on both sides of the Atlantic since 2006.
Along with the Trouts’ startling theatrical originality, White Rabbit, Red Rabbit is perhaps the most unpredictable offering in the line-up. In fact, unpredictability is built into the award-winning script by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour: at every performance an actor who has never seen it will take it out of a sealed envelope, and start reading. Daniel MacIvor, Rebecca Northan, Sheldon Elter, and Denise Clarke have been signed for the purpose.
Other mainstage offerings include:
Christopher Morris’s Night, an encounter between a Toronto anthropologist and a 16-year-old Inuk girl from Pond Inlet.
Carmen Aguirre’s Blue Box, a solo show that culls from the Vancouver-based Chilean performer’s own experiences.
Robert Chafe’s Oil & Water, a production by Artistic Fraud from St. John’s, which chronicles the true story of a black American sailor rescued from a shipwreck off the coast of Newfoundland.
Mani Soleymanlou’s One/Un, a memoir by the Montreal-based Iranian artist.
And, hey, Rick Mercer is performing solo, too.
There’s a series that showcase’s Calgary’s own indie companies, too – including the intriguing prospect of watching playwright Sharon Pollock star in Ron Chambers’ pocket country musical Marg Szkaluba: Pissy’s Wife (produced by Verb Theatre).
Tickets are available at 403-294-9494, Epcorcentre.org, or magneticnorthfestival.ca
