For the past decade, Maiko Bae Yamamoto and James Long have been creating theatre works based on real experiences and real lives - both their own and other people's.
Now, a decade after starting up Theatre Replacement, they've plunged into the world of fiction.
The result? Kate Bowie, coming to the stage at the Shadbolt Centre May 28 to 31.
Yes, before you ask, that would be Kate Bush and David Bowie, the two real-life musicians at the core of the work.
"We wanted to make a show based on the lyrics of Kate Bush and the lyrics of David Bowie," Yamamoto explains.
In the end, mind you, that isn't what the show turned out to be.
Yamamoto and Long brought in playwright Greg MacArthur to work with them on developing the story, and over the course of that exploration they came up with a story about a couple that's on the brink of the end of their relationship - and how they turn to the work of these two icons of music to save it.
"This one really feels like it's moving into different territory," Yamamoto says, noting that fiction is new terrain for them.
Long notes that it's fiction in many senses - "how you create fictions for yourself, how you create fictions to survive, how you create fictions as a couple, about your relationships."
Fittingly, the exploration of those ideas is set against a story that is in itself a fiction - or, at least, an area of question: Did Kate Bush and David Bowie actually ever work on an album together?
"That remains an interesting question of fiction and fact," Long says.
It's known that the two spent time together, that they were part of the same world, that they belonged to the same record label and used the same choreographer - but it isn't known whether rumours of a collaboration were in fact true, since no such recording has ever been heard.
Their mythical collaboration forms the backdrop of the story - but fans of Bush and Bowie be warned, their music isn't the central focus of the show.
"This is a very sideways, twisted-up, upside-down attack on the personas of Bush and Bowie," Long says with a laugh.
Yamamoto notes that the two iconic musicians provide a jumping-off point for the play, a what-would-happen-if moment for the couple at the heart of the story. (And yes, the characters do play instruments - but badly. In other words, Long warns, "Don't expect a tribute band.")
"It's more trying to embody who they are in this world for us," Yamamoto says. "It's trying to embody and find a truth inside the words."
The play's two characters are joined by live sound, by Emma Hendrix, that becomes almost a third character.
Also part of the show are stage manager/producer Ruthie Tabata, lighting designer Jonathan Ryder, visual artist/costume designer Leah Weinstein and director Blake Brooker - from Calgary's One Yellow Rabbit theatre company.
The two are at the Shadbolt Centre in rehearsals this week - a space that Yamamoto says is special to them, even though they're now based in Vancouver.
"We usually always come back here at some point with our shows," she says. "We have a really great relationship with the Shadbolt. ... It's just been a really great space. It's nice to come back here and do a show."
As a special incentive for Vancouver residents, they've organized a series of Bike to the Bolt rides - organized group rides from Science World and from Broadway and Victoria that will bring cyclists to the Shadbolt along an easy, flat route. Cyclists even get discounted tickets - $15 instead of the regular $32 or $27 for students and seniors.
For more on the Bike to the Bolt rides, check out www.facebook.com/TheatreReplacement.
Kate Bowie is onstage Wednesday, May 28 to Saturday, May 31 at 8 p.m. nightly. Tickets for the production are available by calling the Shadbolt box office at 604-205-3000 or through tickets.shadboltcentre.com.
See them online at theatrereplacement.org, or find them on Twitter, @THTRreplacement.
