Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Intangible Trappings features DORA-winning performer Nicky Guadagni as a charming disembodied head and is directed by ted witzel, one of the Kevin Spacey Foundation’s 2016 Artists of Choice and Artist-in-Residence at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre. The piece’s unique movement style, a signature of Lester Trips’ work, is cultivated by their collaboration with contemporary butoh-trained choreographer Denise Fujiwara (of World Stage hit EUNOIA) who acts as Movement Dramaturge for the piece.
The story: A civilization balanced precariously inside a giant cyclone has collapsed and been flung across the planet. Dorothy wakes up in a heap of rubble to find her hands missing and her Aunt Em dead. She has no survival skills. Dorothy manages to locate some new hands belonging to a disembodied head with big plans to reconstitute civilization -but only the good parts. An unsettling and seductively comedic exploration of the visceral and ethical dilemmas that arise when navigating a planet-sized landfill with the voice of an angry cynic whispering in your ear.
“I think a lot of people purposely have bad daydreams about apocalyptic scenarios” says co-writer and performer Lauren Gillis, “and though they may seem cliché, they’re still illuminating, in that they create ethical ‘desert island’-type scenarios where you are permitted to say right out what you think is important, or essential, or good without being burdened by the need to be immediately realistic.”
Lester Trips (Theatre), devises theatre with rigorous dramaturgy, a bouffonesque approach to character, and intense physicality rooted in butoh dance. Through playful theatrical creations that teeter on the edge of the grotesque, we investigate discomfiting contemporary moral conundrums.
“Lauren and Alaine’s inventive, haunting, darkly funny, and savage take on the consequences of the current hyper-consumerist ethos of our culture hooked me immediately, and I was excited by the challenge of realizing their ambitious, highly visual story with this phenomenal team of designers and performers.” ~ ted witzel
INTANGIBLE TRAPPINGS
by Lauren Gillis and Alaine Hutton, directed by ted witzel, performed by Lauren Gillis, Alaine Hutton and Nicky Guadagni.
Wed-Sat Sept 7 - 10 8pm, Sun Sept 11 4pm
at the Scotiabank Studio Theatre, 6 Noble Street, Toronto.
tickets: $20 general, $15 student/artsworker at www.lestertrips.com
Follow us on Twitter @LesterTrips #IntangibleTrappings & on Facebook Lester Trips (Theatre)
Photo: Alaine Hutton and Nicky Guadagni.
2016-08-22
Toronto: Lester Trips (Theatre) presents "Intangible Trappings" September 7-11