Each year artists transform Buddies in Bad Times Theatre into a hotbed of experimentation, and this year sees an expansion to other spaces in the neighborhood. New to the festival is a series of Open Space Projects that will animate unexpected spaces around the Buddies neighbourhood and make new artistic connections between five historic queer institutions here in Toronto.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL
•A special presentation of Full Dark, the latest from cabaret sensation and Buddies Artist in Residence Sharron Matthews.
•What’s Left of Us, an exciting collaboration between queer Indigenous artists Justin Many Fingers and Brian Soloman.
•A radical exploration of Frank Wedekind’s iconic femme fatale Lulu by resident artists the red light district, Lulu V.2 // Because Bad Things Happen To Bad Girls, featuring writing from a prolific group of writers that includes Margaret Atwood, Kat Sandler, Jordan Tannahill, Sky Gilbert, and dozens more.
•Cabaret Artist in Residence Ryan G Hinds’ Macarthur Park Suite: A Disco Ballet, an unmistakably queer dance experiment inspired by Donna Summers’ classic 17-minute song.
•Toronto’s best-known clowns and Fringe favourites Morro and Jasp bring their signature style to Rhubarb with Anything Goes, a new performance designed for one audience member at a time.
•Partnerships with three amazing local queer organizations – Oasis Aqualounge, Videofag, and
The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives.
•A special presentation of Polish artist Janek Turkowski’s Margarete, in collaboration with the first year of the international performance art festival Progress.
DISCOVER UNEXPECTED PLACES THROUGH ART
In the rich Rhubarb tradition of stretching theatrical boundaries, artists invite you to enter places that are private, personal, and extremely intimate. This year’s Festival features a collection of new works set in places that you aren’t often allowed to go and animates them in new and exciting ways.
•At local upscale spa and sex club Oasis Aqualounge, audience members gather around a rooftop pool for Gein Wong’s Ocean Carving performed entirely in the water by Catherine Hernandez.
•The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives opens its doors for a multi-performance experience featuring work from Olive-Or-Oliver, Vince Ha, Melissa Koziebrocki, Heather Hermant, Alvis Parsley, Rob Kempson, and Darryl Tracy. Their performances take audiences on a tour through the building’s back hallways, offices, and stairwells as they explore Toronto’s queer history.
•The Buddies bathrooms become a queer-Shakespearian stomping ground in Hamlet in a Hot Tub, featuring Toronto drag sensation Donnarama.
•Other unexpected corners of Buddies are animated by a one-on-one performance by Morro and Jasp, a build-your-own ID station by Trevor Campbell, and pop-up dance performances from choreographer Marie-Lambin Gagnon.
NEW INVESTIGATIONS IN DRAG
In a society becoming increasingly engaged in issues of gender identity and representation, many artists are using their time at Rhubarb to investigate and upend the way we see our gender. Most notably, the queer tradition of Drag Queens is being used to investigate these ideas, while also breathing new perspectives and approaches to drag.
•Vancouver artist Joel Klein brings a distinctly high-brow take on drag to the stage in Cocktales with Maria – a new opera based on verbatim transcripts of gay male sexual experiences.
•Local drag queen Donnarama collaborates with queer artists David Bateman and Paul Bellini on Hamlet in a Hot Tub a gender-bending adaptation of Hamlet, re-imagined as taking place in a gay bathhouse.
•The Montreal trio behind The Femmetopian Adventures places the over-the-top femininity of drag onto an all female cast for an intergalactic, post-apocalyptic extravaganza.
Click here for more on the festival, and here for a full schedule and description of all shows.
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street, Toronto ON – On until February 22, 2015
Evening Passes include all performances $20 / Offsite Events & Young Creators Unit PWYC
Box Office 416-975-8555
