Virtual reality and too-real reality
Three-week rEvolver Festival showcases 12 presentations with focus on works in progress
In The Frontliners, Zahida Rahemtulla draws on her work helping place Syrian refugees in the Lower Mainland.
“I wanted to tell a story about people we usually don't think about,” the Burnaby born-and-raised playwright said. “The resettlement of families in 2016 was highly publicized. But there was a lot of people behind the scenes, who were often very hardworking and special kinds of characters.”
The Frontliners is Rahemtulla's second full-length play, following 2018's The Wrong Bashir. It's part of this year's rEvolver Festival, an annual event that showcases new work from emerging companies and playwrights.
This year the emphasis is on work that is in development, says co-curator Kayleigh Sandomirsky.
“We realized everyone is tired, everyone's struggling in the arts community, and we didn't want to put pressure on people to create something polished.”
The three-week event showcases 12 presentations that include digital and audio experiences, conversations and workshops. Other than Stéphanie Cyr's messier objects EP, a video series, and Veronique West's Szepty/
Whispers: Dialogue, an audiowalk, everything will be livestreamed.
“Some are via Zoom, some are coming from Twitch, some are being projected live from the Cultch, and some are coming from the performer's home,” Sandomirsky said.
One of those works is Collider, a VR game from Single
Thread Theatre Company.
“It's about presenting their work but also getting feedback from the audience so they can continue the exploration into the show,” Sandomirsky said. Other pieces include Necessary Dream, another interactive game; Anna Saves the Marsh, with an autistic main character; and Catfish, about a hearing impaired girl's search for love.
The festival also includes workshops about dyslexia and protest signs (not in combination, alas), and discussions, such as Real Talks. The latter, a co-presentation with Gateway Theatre, looks at “how mental health informs artistic practice,” according to the official description. Sandomirsky and her rEvolver co-curator Davey Calderon will facilitate the event, which features comedian Jan Derbyshire and writer Kagan Goh reading from their autobiographical theatre pieces, Certified and The Day My Cat Saved My Life, respectively.
“The artistic temperament
is closely aligned with ideas of madness,” Derbyshire said. “In that, there's a lot of negative stigma, But I would also argue there are also a lot of great things we (artists) have to offer because our minds put things together in different ways.”
Real Talks is scheduled for May 19 at 7 p.m. before that, on May 15 the comedian hosts Mad Practice: Sanity Skills for Crazy Times, a Zoom workshop, through Gateway.
“I think that we in the arts profession live with a certain kind of uncertainty that is echoing out in this time,” Derbyshire said. “In the arts, you get used to living gig to gig and things changing very quickly. I think we kind of have some muscle there. But I think it's also a difficult time for artists because we don't know when things will return to some sort of normal. We're finding community with each other and asking, How can we do things differently? How do we keep making if we can't perform?”