compelling 2018

... two of the most compelling works witnessed last year (2018) were Kamloopa & Kanata-Épisode 1 - La Controverse ... compelling to witness with compelling backstories ...

 ... Kamloopa was co-produced by Persephone Theatre, Gordon Tootoosis Nīkānīwin Theatre and Western Canada Theatre (Kamloops) in collaboration with National Arts Centre Indigenous Theatre by Fire Creator/Playwrite/Director Kim Senklip Harvey performed at The BackStage Stage (Persephone Theatre Saskatoon) in late October ... 

Kanata photo from press kit

... Kanata-Épisode 1 - La Controverse was a Thèâtre Du Soleil production with le Festival Automne à Paris, a coproduction Printemps des Comédiens (Montpellier), Napoli Teatro Festival (Italia) developed from a Ex Machina project; Mise en scène Robert Lepage with the actors of Thèâtre Du Soleil performed at Cartoucherie (Paris) in late December ...

... not unusual and happening more & more in both large, regional and even small theatres are co-productions with shows travelling from theatre to theatre each sharing many of the staged rehearsal & design elements as well as participants (designers, stage managers and all) ... 

... Kim Senklip invites us to an Indigenous Artistic Ceremony ... Del Surjik in his Artistic Director's Message for Kamloopa notes:

 "Many cultures across the world have brought their influence to the creation of theatre - adding to that now, is the rising voice of new Matriarchal indigenous ceremony, processes and values."

... Helen Cixous and Thèâtre Du Soleil founder Ariana Mnouchkine invite us to reassess & receive the work of Robert LePage ... Mnouchkine interviewed by Joëlle Gayot, Paris, Cartoucherie September 2018 speaks:   

 "But cultures are not the property of anyone. No bounds limit them because, precisely, they have no known limits in geographical space, or, especially, in time. They are not isolated, they are sowing since the dawn of civilizations. No more than a peasant can prevent the wind from blowing on his field the spray of the healthy or noxious sowing practiced by their neighbors no people, even the most insular, can claim the definitive purity of their culture. The stories of groups, hordes, clans, tribes, ethnic groups, peoples, nations, finally, can not be patented, as some claim, because they all belong to the great history of humanity. It is this great story that is the territory of artists. Cultures, all cultures, are our sources and, in a way, they are all sacred. We must drink there studiously, with respect and gratitude, but we can not accept that we are forbidden to approach it because we would then be pushed back into the desert. It would be an intellectual, artistic, political, frightening regression. The theater has doors and windows. Theatre addresses the whole world."

... the driving force for each is a fierce & passionate vision  ... two matriarchs ... an elder stateswomen her life in the theatre for more than half a century & a young warrior ... both driven by the same desire ... in the words of Ariana:

"That's why I hate the word 'production': it's not produced, it's a ceremony, it's a ritual, it is something which is very important for your mental strength, and you should go out of the theatre stronger and more human than when you went in."

... for a fraction of a moment witnessing Kamloopa I was transported to part of the audience first experiencing Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi in December 1896 ... Kamloopa was a wild, riotous, comic often bizarre spectacle overturning cultural rules, playfully exposing norms and ridiculing, in the way a trickster does, conventions ... yet it was solemn & sober & awe inspiring ... 

 ... La Controverse was an epic and majestic vista ... deftly composed image and textual overlays struggling with voice, intention & articulation ... deeply personal terrains of cohabited outliers in force fields of stereotypes bursting ingloriously through archetypes seeking reclamation ... 

... together they explore the surrounding mystical within & without ... i expect to be judged, i may be harmed and dispossessed ... am i blasphemous, pathological ... still to act is the process of cultivating while negotiating unbearable complexities with dignity, respect and risk ...

... compelling ... that's what i need when i enter the doors of the theatre ... a way to be more human ... explorations of social and pedagogical knowledge ... a dangerous epistemology ... a ceremony ...

::Note:: ... embracing two different worlds is wonderful ... some other viewpoints ...