may 10 11 12 | monster

Two fascinations for me. #1, Erik Ehn has been the boss of CalArts in recent years, my alma mater, and I've been much curious to see what his Saints Plays are all about. Fascination #2: costumes by Flo Barrett, who did THE GREAT DIVORCE for PT last spring!

TICKETS

Craning Neck Theatre workshow series, in co-production with Theatre Conspiracy, presents Erik Ehn’s new Saint Play Monster at Chapel Arts. The second part of a three-phase project, Monster will world premiere next spring 2013.

Ehn, renowned for his Saints Plays, RAT Manifesto, Soulographie project (17 plays at La Mama in New York this fall), and for creating the annual Arts in the One World conference, which engages themes of art and social change, refers to his Saint plays as “contemporary fairy tales for the stage.”

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Monster, a new Saint Play by Ehn, is the story of two women: St. Clare, an ascetic nun of the 13th century, and Reena, an art teacher stricken by poverty and sickness in present-day Vancouver. As in all the works in Ehn’s Saint Plays cycle, Monster examines the common pathways of secular and religious existence. Deconstructing the meta-narrative of the Christian canon, Ehn strips the saints and the people around them to their most human components.

Directed by Jeremy Waller (artist-in-residence at Theatre Conspiracy), and presented through CNT’s workshow series, the show is bound with visual contradictions in black and white and stark opulence. It is a montage over a merry-go-round text, a fairytale focusing on addiction and transcendence. Monster looks at two women, in two very different times, as metaphors of communion, their blood binding pain with meaning and purpose.

With lighting and projection design by Parjad Sharifi, sound by Emma Hendrix, costumes by Florence Barrett, video by Daniel O'Shea, production dramaturgy by Heidi Taylor and stage management by Anna Busch. Performers Adriana Bucz and Nita Bowerman will return to the project, and we are very pleased to announce the inclusion of Nneka Croal into the ensemble.

Three public performances – May 10, 11, 12
All shows at 8pm
Tickets $15/12 (artist and student rate) at the door, or at Brown Paper Tickets

Licenced bar, cheap drinks, dance party!
Following the Saturday May 12 performance, duo Noah Drew and Jamie Nesbitt will DJ into the night – a fundraiser for Craning Neck Theatre.
9:30pm to 2am at Chapel Arts, immediately after Monster.
Tickets free with Monster purchase, $5 if you just come for the music.