Theatre of the Bush
- Theatre of the Bush
Cinemas always have some new way to experience film: 3-D glasses, smell-o-vision, moving seats. But there's already a place for performances that speak to the whole spectator, performances created to be touched and tasted and felt: we call it the theatre. And that full mind-body experience is what Ramshackle Theatre's Theatre in the Bush does best.
The land is as important to these stories as the playwright, the actor, and even the audience. Some pieces used the aesthetic of the woods: a story about marriage created through striking, ephemeral imagery of a white bride running through a dark forest, seen by a handful of people and then gone. Others built themselves right into the woods: one performer hung guitars from the trees for the audience to play like high-tech mobiles. Another interactive performance fed the woods to the audience, with a selection of thought- and saliva-provoking treats, locally grown and gathered.
There were no extraneous elements in the small playing areas; often only simple lighting created an almost-tangible sense of intimacy. Most pieces involved music, from a haunting a cappella song to ukuleles and banjos. It is fascinating to hear a song from the show you just saw harmonize with the one you're currently watching. Music unified the whole night on one path: it reminded you that you weren't alone; that you came from somewhere and were headed somewhere. It wove the stories into the trees around us and, with the simple lighting, made the vast and wild space intimate. [End Page 109]
Theatre in the Bush was a pitch-perfect introduction to life, and art, in the Yukon. It showcased stories by local artists, providing a taste of northern theatre, and it did so in the bush itself. The land, which feels like such a present part of Yukon life, was embraced and showcased in beautiful, creative, and intimate ways. Maybe, and in the best way possible, it was less theatre in the bush and more theatre of it.
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Image from Trouble, presented as part of Theatre in the Bush.
Photo by John Gelinas
Sarah Higgins received her MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. As a playwright, she has had works produced across the country, from the Halifax Fringe Festival to Little Mountain Lion Productions' One Act Showcase in Vancouver. She is currently working on a quartet of plays exploring dementia.
