by Yanik Comeau (Comunik Média/ZoneCulture)
Montreal’s new WinterWorks Festival, hosted by Centaur Theatre and La Chapelle, the somewhat retooled/renamed Wildside Festival, starts off at Centaur with thirtysomething Gillian Clark’s nine-year-in-the-making monologue Adventures starring the playwright’s muse, inspiration and mentor/idol Ann-Marie Kerr. Right off the bat, the audience is privy to the playwright’s journey through an introduction by the actress addressing the audience directly before jumping into the contemporary coming-of-age fable she is about to tell.
Playing all three characters of the story – the Mother Tree, and teenagers Wendy and PJ – as well as herself, Ann-Marie Kerr totally embodies the odd script (which seems to purposely go in all directions but addresses important social issues in record time), seamlessly going from one character to the other in each of the very short chapters/scenes.
One of the odd strengths of the piece is its seemingly deconstructed and non-linear narrative. When the audience thinks it’s going in a certain direction, the script pivots and goes another way. And after a little more than 30 minutes, a major pivot occurs signaling a false ending and a surprising twist. Although the subject can be very dark at times (teenage pregnancy, motherhood, abortion...), the audience on closing night belly laughed at some funny lines that should have provoked an uncomfortable chuckle at the most. Odd, audience.
Jackson Fairfax-Perry’s original soundscape is mesmerizing, and the uncredited set design is amazing, creating both a jungle gym-type apparatus and tree shape with cables. Christian Barry both directs and lights this production, and his lighting design is particularly interesting and efficient.
Adventures would fit any great Fringe festival and would have checked all the boxes of the now defunct Wildside. So one has to ask: Why change the name of the festival? Was Wildside too wild of a name for some of the productions that were presented? Was it not inclusive enough? Did the name make some people nervous? It’s great to acknowledge the season with the new name but besides the fact that the festival is held during some of the coldest months of the year, most of the pieces will probably have nothing to do with the season, right? I love the name WinterWorks but is it really representative of what will be presented? I certainly hope WinterWorks won’t lose its wild side and I was certainly happy to hear curator and associate artist Rebecca Gibian talk about her vision for the new festival.
Adventures by Gillian Clark Directed by Christian Barry Starring Ann-Marie Kerr (Wendy, PJ and The Mother Tree) Original Soundscape by Jackson Fairfax-Perry Costume Designer: Andrea Ritchie Stage Manager and Assistant Sound Designer: Julian Smith Artistic Consultant: Anthony Black Lighting Designer: Christian Barry Produced by Imago Theatre and Keep Good (Theatre) Presented in partnership with Centaur Theatre Company for the WinterWorks Festival From February 3rd to March 1st, 2025 (Time: 45 minutes, no intermission) Centaur Theatre, 453, St. François-Xavier Street, Montreal Reservations: 514-288-3161 Information: https://centaurtheatre.com/shows/adventures/
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