Wonderland new virtual reality

Multidisciplinary celebration of cutting-edge talent

Publication title: Edmonton Journal
Pages: C5
Publication date: Jun 3, 2001
ProQuest document ID: 252849186
Author: Nicholls, Liz
Theatre Preview
Wonderland
Event: NeXtFest 2001
Theatre: Emptyspace
Produced by: Paul Blain, Michael Chyz
Where: New City Suburbs
Running: Today 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.

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Alice didn't realize it at the time, when she tumbled down the rabbit hole and found herself in a brave new world of fractured logic, time reversals, and non-causality. But she might well have stumbled on a pioneer rave scene -- with the Queen of Hearts standing in for the hot DJs.

Your turn to be Alice, and fling yourself into a new virtual reality, is at hand. Wonderland, which runs 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. tonight at the New City Suburbs, is a one-off eight-hour "performance rave" collectively created by 35 artists from every discipline. It was designed by Emptyspace Theatre as a launch to this year's edition of NeXtFest, the annual multidisciplinary celebration of emerging, cutting-edge talent that opens Tuesday at Theatre Network.

NeXtFest's new artistic director, Steve Pirot, had caught wind of Emptyspace's upcoming Fringe version of Euripides' The Bacchae, and he was intrigued, says Emptyspace's Paul Blain. "We're planning an environmental production set in the context of a rave. ... The rave scene is a Dionysian cult, right?"

"He asked us whether we could do a `rave theatre' piece. I didn't know what that meant, exactly. But I said, `Sure.' " And since NeXtFest is all about crossing boundaries between theatre, dance, film and video, visual and digital arts, and music, Wonderland seemed the perfect prelude and "raves are inherently theatrical," says Blain.

Six weeks ago Blain and his co-producer Michael Chyz started amassing their forces, brainstorming and rehearsing by a method christened RSVP by avant-garde Canadian theatre director Robert Lepage.

How many people are involved? "It's difficult to tell," smiles Blain. "Someone is always saying, `Ah, we need a juggler here; ah, we need a drummer there, ... At least 35, probably more."

The Lewis Carroll estate needn't get exercised. "I didn't want to tell a story or create a narrative or play," says Blain, whose own play, lightergame, a dark group portrait of a sullen, bored generation of thuggish middle-class offspring, ran two NeXtFests ago. Instead "we jammed on the psychology of Alice," attracted, as Blain says, "by Alice's curiosity, the way she tripped out in her imaginary world."

"At the first rehearsal we had a dramaturge, a graphic designer, a stage manager doing contact improvisation onstage," grins Blain. A sculptor might find himself part of a fire dance spectacle, or monitoring the "chill space," or "getting a secret agent task," by which Blain means "making sure everyone there has a personal experience."

"We scored out lots of ideas." Then Blain, who lugs around a thick sheaf of paper which isn't a script but more like a master time-table, and calls himself a facilitator not a director, sketched out what might happen when, with room for lots of improvisation in between.

"We wanted to stretch the idea of how to be an artist. It's been a total collaboration," he says. "We drew on the talents of everyone who worked on it," from actors to writers to hair/make-up wizard Emilie (from Fluid) to Glam Slam (the flash Strathcona clothing shop).

If this sounds potentially intimidating to you, it shouldn't, says Blain.

"People don't need to worry. We focus on inclusion. We want to create a sense of Wow! Bizarre! Wonder! We want to blur the line that separates the spectator from the performer. ... The performance includes everyone who's there."

"You enter the club through a tunnel, into a maze with choices. ... People can come and explore, wander around looking at the art installations."

Ah, and there's the music. "If you just came for a while to dance you wouldn't be disappointed." There's Gravity Collective. The DJ lineup that includes Dragon, Tryptomene, Xu, Maudio, Shortie.

"It's meant to be a blast. Something fun. There's a certain charm when you go to Wonderland."

Illustration



Photo: Supplied/ Wonderland is an eight-hour, 35-performer `performance rave.'