Celebrating twelve years of new and fresh shows.
I have a little theater experience, I’ve helped as both an actor and backstage assistant in numerous productions. So, when I was offered the opportunity to review Ottawa’s very own Fresh Meat – a festival that lets local productions experiment with brand-new ideas – I was immediately hooked. I hope this brief review of what I felt were some serious highlights encourages you to check it out next time!
Fresh Meat 12
Before the show began, Fresh Meat celebrated 12 years of shows and then entreated us to also check out the National Art Centre’s Indigenous Theatres own productions after the show! As the announcements came to an end, the lights grew dim on the small stage and it felt like the whole room had been swallowed up in an anticipatory silence.
The Casket Scene
This performance was gut-wrenching. Using only three chairs and a simple handbag, the audience is cast away into the sea of grief drowning a daughter, played by Rachel Eugster, who is now without her mother. “I would follow suit like a faithful dog after death,” is a line that helps to open this production in its first minutes. It’s haunting. The daughter is joined by her friend, played by Beverly Wolfe, as they aim to dress up her deceased mother one last time.
When the two women set to work, there’s a moment in the hysteria that strikes true with clarity – they start singing Stephen Sondheim’s Send In The Clowns. It’s bittersweet. Death is bittersweet. The friends are comforted by each other and the funeral director, played by Lawrence Evenchick, but there’s an absence that hangs in every moment – like each line is waiting for an interjection that will never come.
Where are the clowns?
Messy Structure
Part improv, part ballet, totally fun watch! This lighthearted show was a nice change of pace for the night, especially as the audience was roped into each scene as the dynamic duo – Krystel Merrells and Rich Hilborn – fluttered up and down stage pretending to be birds, kids at the swing set, and much more.
It’s charmingly optimistic, Merrells and Hilborn’s passion for art bleeds through every moment of comedy and dance. There was a moment that night as the show came to a close where they began to talk about their act and they looked at the crowd like they were imploring each of us, asking “I wonder what people would do if they could just throw themselves into different kinds of art?”
I wonder too. Give it a try! Write, sculpt, paint, compose, dance, do something, and make sure when you’re done and ask about your inspiration – say “Two amateur ballet improvisers told me to try.”
Let Me Ask You To Leave
The concept is simple, Dave Cave comes up on stage and encourages audience members to try and take his performance fee by volunteering to endure a reality show. When he came onto stage that night, he gave volunteers (including me!) a sixty-second timer to fill out a volunteer form with several questions – no one finished in time.
He walked off stage and spoke into the microphone, “That’s it. That’s the show. I win, have a good night.”
I couldn’t help but laugh in awe. That’s the show.
Other shows that night included: an_ti_gon_nee a deconstruction of Antigone, 77 Days with Dog 33 – a one-man dog show that involved some serious surgery, and Dabkha – a fusion music performance with an anonymous frontliner, consider supporting both Fresh Meat and its creators with your attendance next year at… Fresh Meat 13!
