wildside – The Concordian

A theatrical dive into the shadows of womanhood.

A 30th birthday? What’s there to fear about hitting that milestone? But what if it’s a convergence of all things going wrong?

Society’s expectations grow heavier with each passing year. Every added responsibility feels like a suffocating weight. Your once-familiar room now feels estranged and echoes with a profound emptiness. Imagine commemorating three decades of existence in a state that mirrors death more than life itself. Welcome to Still Life, a gripping theatrical experience freshly translated from French to English, debuting at the 2024 Wildside Festival in Montreal.

“It is a big play, that jumps around in time, and through the psychological and physical states of a woman trying to understand what is happening to her,” said Emma Tibaldo, director of Still Life.

Annually, the Wildside Festival—taking place from Jan. 18 to Feb. 8 this year—spotlights independent and experimental theatrical works from Quebec and beyond. Still Life is the starting act of a total of six plays, and it was written by playwrights Marie-Ève Milot and Marie-Claude St-Laurent of Théâtre de l’Affamée. It is currently in the process of being reworked for its official release this fall.

The play features five actors—a main character and four others that serve as a chorus—simultaneously portraying the protagonist’s inner thoughts as well as those of the other characters in the narrative.

The use of lighting is significant, creating intense moments of claustrophobia in the protagonist’s mental landscape. Thoughts may seem fragmented and elusive, yet they resonate with a raw sense of authenticity, even when they verge on the surreal.

Scene from Still Life, The protagonist isolated in her apartment shares a moment with her concerned best friend. Photo courtesy of Talisman Theatre

From Hannah Wilke to Joseph Beuys, the main character effectively employs art references to vividly capture universal feelings of anxiety.

Such was the case for Nidaa Badwan, a Palestinian artist who voluntarily confined herself to her 100-square-feet apartment for 20 months in 2013. Badwan tried to construct her own reality through art as a form of liberation from the constraints of womanhood in Gaza. Her experience became a recurring reference in the life of Still Life’s protagonist, mirroring aspects of her own emotional turmoil.

But capturing such intense emotions presents its challenges. Cary Lawrence, a cast member of the play, spoke about the potential impact that embodying such raw emotions may have on an actor’s emotional health: “Especially when we were rehearsing the chorus work, we were heavy breathing to the point where we were so lightheaded,” said Lawrence. “You know as actors, that’s our job—to take the words and physicalize them by putting a lot of meaning behind them.”

Director Tibaldo expressed her aspirations for what the piece communicates to its audience upon release in the fall. “I want folks to be aware of the unpredictable effects of anxiety and depression. The way it can cut you down, and completely disempower you,” said director Tibaldo. “The improbable becomes that which can save us. A chance meeting, an extreme act, a possible connection. Maybe just being open to the unexpected can be enough to pull us through.”

You might want to add another New Year’s resolution to your list: going to the theatre. With the Centaur Theatre’s 17th annual Wildside Festival taking off for the first two weeks of January, entertainment is guaranteed for any student hoping to escape the cold and have a few chuckles instead.

This year, the Wildside Festival’s collection of plays is ablaze with energy and spirit. There is something for everyone, with issues ranging from losing one’s virginity to childhood innocence to gay conversion summer camps. One thing is for sure: you won’t go home bored.

V-Cards asks the thorny question some of us squirm away from: how did you lose your virginity? Starring actors such as Mike Payette and Anana Rydvald, the play zooms in on four masked actors playing over 20 characters who bandy sexual theories around with some side-splittingly funny results. One scene in particular deserves a nod. Two characters’ inner thoughts are voiced on one night of rather forgettable sex. In between loud snorts, the woman sighs “I wish I could remember the night better … I only had two beers, on top of it.” Her oblivious lover, on the other hand, simpers, proclaiming, “She looked at me! She wore that bodyspray she always wears to parties and she looked like the perfect white cloud and smelled of vanilla.” Clearly, the sexual frisson of the escapade was not shared.

Next up is Blue Box. This one-woman show is an intriguing story set in Chile, Los Angeles, and Vancouver, where two tales are told in parallel: that of playwright Carmen Aguirre’s underground work in the 1980s Chilean movement to oust president Pinochet, and that of a complex relationship with a Mexican-American actor. Aguirre’s passionate relationships with both men and politics has already been staged in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, Banff and Regina.

Big Shot presents the six different witness perspectives to a shooting that occurs on the Vancouver SkyTrain. With dance, text and physical theatre, the play explores the myriad of emotions life offers. One particularly striking scene, starring Jon Lachlan Stewart, points the finger at government-funded programs. After performing body-challenging poses, Stewart stops in mid-stance and proclaims: “Life is crap. But I am not supposed to say that, right? … Breathing in the goodness and breathing out the bad. It’s more like breathing in the lies and breathing out the truth,” he says.

The festival comprises 12 plays that spotlight gay conversion therapy, lethal lipstick, and sexual confessions. Photos courtesy of Centaur Theatre. Press photo

You might be interested in A Quiet Sip of Coffee, expertly written and told by Anthony Johnston and Nathan Schwartz. Their story is a peculiar one. In the summer of 2004, the self-titled “gay/straight best friends duo” penned a prank letter to an “ex-gay” organization, requesting funds to produce a play. The reply was a surprise: the organization agreed to it, but at a cost — the duo had to spend two weeks in gay conversion therapy. Still in shock, the friends have reunited to perform their take on what actually happened. A Quiet Sip of Coffee is in the form of docu-theatre, honing in on dark issues such as atonement and melodrama and somehow poking through the dark issues with some light.

Iceland tackles the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis by examining encounters between three interestingly original characters. Halim, a Toronto real estate agent, is changed after meeting Ana, a pious condo tenant, who is also affected when meeting Kassandra, an Estonian prostitute. Part of Nicolas Billon’s Governor General Award-winning play triptych (Greenland, Iceland and Faroe Islands), the show is to go on to Halifax and Mumbai.

Little Orange Man, which garnered the Montreal Fringe Festival prize, is described as “very revolutionary” and “very epic.” The play deals with a 12-year-old’s resolve to get to grips with her recurring dreams and her relationship with her grandfather. Weaving between the contemporary (think craigslist ads) and timeless fables (think Danish fairy tales), the play points to the eternality of theatre and how time can be overcome by the power of the narrative. Affected by ADD, the 12-year-old addresses her recurring dreams and invites the audience to help her with her quest. Ingrid Hansen shines in her role, with her Pippi Longstocking-esque costume complete with two red braids and her determinedly cheerful demeanour. The play was initially inspired by Hansen’s grandfather.

“He came over from Denmark and moved to Kelowna in strawberry season,” said Hansen. “He was a very soft-spoken, gentle man and strong. My father said he had muscles on top of his muscles on top of his muscles.”

Music, shadow puppetry and audience interaction helps the young girl on her quest.

Talk, Mackerel has one message to impart — life is no piece of cake. Imagine this: you are invited to the birthday party of Leslie Moira Duncanaine. But something is wrong, really wrong. You are entering a world of midnight moonshine where ancestors’ portraits fight and things become alive.

Director and playwright Sarah Segal-Lazar explained the creative process to The Concordian: “I like to think of my play as a moment’s theatre. Every moment counts. I wrote down scenes on index cards and for weeks I shuffled them, giving an order to my narrative. There was no A to Z.”

The Wildside Festival runs until Jan. 12 at the Centaur Theatre at 453 St-François Xavier. Check out the website for more information: centaurtheatre.com/wildsidefestival.php.