When the moon hits an unblinking eye, it’s still amore
As co-heads of Wonderheads, a physical theatre company that specializes in mask performance, Kate Braidwood and Andrew Phoenix have received critical praise and, after most performances, some variation on an insight that is completely off-base.
“The comment we hear the most,” Phoenix explains, “is about the mask coming to life. It is perceived as sometimes smiling, sometimes frowning—yet it never moves.”
As the creators of the masks—each one takes 50 to 80 hours of work—Braidwood and Phoenix have chosen to see the comment as a compliment. “They’re wowed by the magic of it,” says Phoenix.
Of course, the comment comes as confirmation of something that the duo has long known but can’t quite explain. “It’s basically a sculpture we wear on our heads,” Braidwood says, “but there is something about the form that lets us into the hearts and imaginations of our audience.” The masks have a similar effect on Braidwood and Phoenix, a fact that has implications for their creative process. The pair don’t work with a completed script but rather from a basic idea that they then develop into a play. Once they have an idea of where the show is going, they need to make a mask. “So much of the show arrives out of the character,” Braidwood says. “We don’t want to get too far out in front of the character or else the script might not work.” It’s a process the pair has honed since graduating with master’s degrees in ensemble-based physical theatre from Dell’Arte International, a school in Northern California. They were friends at school but their relationship deepened after they formed Wonderheads in 2009. In the course of creating their first show, Grim and Fischer, Braidwood and Phoenix fell in love and eventually married. They thought it was only logical that their next show be about love. The result is Loon, which comes to the Festival of Animated Objects March 17-18. The show centres on Francis, a lonely janitor whose search for love takes him to the moon. The show debuted in 2012, and some of the earliest performances were at the Calgary Fringe. Phoenix says that in the course of the 200 or so performances since then, the show has evolved. “It’s really found its feet,” he says. That makes Loon even more adept at capturing hearts. To put it another way, while Francis’s expression won’t change, audiences will likely experience a range of emotions.