In The Icebook, tiny figures negotiate a dream landscape
Go small.
In The Icebook, the short, wordless presentation by Davy and Kristin McGuire, which Boca del Lupo is presenting as part of its Micro Performance Series, up to ten audience members at a time watch a kind of magic lantern show.
As the lights dim, Davy starts to turn the white pages of a pop-up book. Through a combination of back lighting and rear-projected moving images, the paper sets come to life. Snow falls. Tiny moving figures populate the dreamscape.
As the protagonist in the story takes a book off the shelf and finds himself transported into a world of imagination and longing, the parallels between his experience and ours are palpable. And, as he falls in love with a magical spirit, the question arises: To what degree do we endanger the objects of our craving through craving itself?
The Icebook is more of a meditation than a narratively satisfying fairytale, but its 20 minutes fly by and its ten-dollar admission makes the performance virtually free.
Also interesting this weekend: Mother Teresa Is Dead at Pacific Theatre. Evan Frayne is directing a great cast in this one: Katherine Venour, Julie McIsaac, Kayvon Kelly, and Sebastian Kroon. It’s about a woman who leaves her husband and young child behind when she goes to minister to street kids in India.
At Performance Works, Pi Theatre is presenting Mark O’Rowe’s Terminus, which digs into a rough night in Dublin—a night that involves a botched abortion and a guy who has literally sold his soul to the devil. Some critics have asked for more meaning in the violence, but they all praise O’Rowe’s poetic language.
And, until Saturday, you can still catch Anton Lipovetsky in Dave Deveau’s My Funny Valentine, which explores the issues and circumstances surrounding the real-life murder of gay teenager Larry King.
Don’t ever let anybody tell you that Vancouver theatre ain’t happening.
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