Fallen

Last night, Nathan and I drove out to Craik's Eco-Centre to see Kelly Anne Riess' production of Fallen, with dramatical performances by Leon Willey and KJ Konkin. 

In the first third of the evening, the trio gave a live reading of a long poem Kelly has written. As I understand it, they performed a version of the poem that had been edited for the stage; Some of Kelly's description was shifted into dialogue, and narrative. Some of the themes of the poem that I found really interesting were allusions to Adam and Eve's fall from Eden, gardening motifs, and the nuances of a relationship, including elements of humour, sadness, and the mundane. After the performance, an audience member asked Kelly the significance of the title, and she suggested that "fallen" represents both the Adam and Eve metaphor as well as falling in love and falling out of love.

I've never seen a poem adapted for the stage in such a manner, and I thought it was a really smart move to find actors to perform the parts of "man" and "woman." There's something really powerful about having a poem come to life in front of you! I was also thinking of the Paradise Lost reading at U of R last fall, and how hearing Eve's lines spoken aloud changed the way I had heard them in my head. I'm definitely looking forward to reading Kelly's poem on the page, but this was a nice introduction.

The other parts of the evening included a multimedia production showing how they'd interviewed residents of Craik for material for the third half, which was a partly improvised play that Kelly had written in the past 48 hours, focusing on the history of Craik's Eco-Centre. I've never been to the Eco-Centre before. It's apparently quite self sufficient... and made out of hay bales. The thing that stood out the most for me was the composting toilets---they use NO water whatsoever! And are sort of frightening.

If you're free next weekend, you can still drive out to Mortlach to check out the final performance of the Fallen tour.

MORTLACH, SK @ The Mortlach Hall Friday, September 23rd, 2011 

Tickets are $8 in advance at Hollyhock Market or $10 at the door 

Performance Time: 7:30pm 

Craik:

 Eco-Centre:

 Some robots... I assume they are enviro-robots of some rendering.

 This robot was reading a shakespeare sonnet...