If the words “public lecture” make you yawn, you’ll need to take a look at this theatrical experience.
Theatre Replacement and Rough House Productions are taking a unique and playful look at the idea of public lecture with their new creation at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.
The companies are bringing Three Lectures on the North to the stage May 18 to 21 at the Shadbolt’s Studio Theatre.
As the name suggests, the production centres around three speeches on the subject of Canada’s North – which, a press release notes, is “a region many of us use to define our country, but few of us have actually experienced.”
The lectures feature the writing of Marie Clements, Clare Duffy and James Long, with topics that flow from the ideas of a new northern superhuman, able to withstand harsh conditions and tap the untapped wilderness, to our own fetishization of the North, from the Franklin Expedition to Stephen Harper’s “Arctic sovereignty” legacy.
Each performance will feature two new known Vancouver actors – and the performers will know nothing about what is to occur when they arrive at the theatre. Over the course of a few hours, they will be given the training and knowledge needed to give their performance – and they’ll then take Three Lectures on the North to the audience for the first and only time.
The show was created by Candelario Andrade, Camille Gingras, James Long, Maiko Yamamoto, Mark Eugster and Conor Wylie.
Three Lectures on the North is on 8 p.m. nightly, May 18 to 21, at the Shadbolt Centre, 6450 Deer Lake Ave. See tickets.shadboltcentre.com or call 604-205-3000 to buy.
For more information about the show, see www.theatrereplacement.org.
