Monday, February 4, 2008

In English. Performer Karen Spencer performs (in English). A wanderer, loiterer, rider of trains and circulator of dreams, she takes the mundane events of ordinary life and finds their poetry, taking the time to take time. She has exhibited at artist-run centres in Canada and Europe. Her favourite performance place is the street.

For her Dream Listener/Porteur de rêves project, she spent a year on the street using found cardboard on which she wrote her dreams. It became a way of encountering street people and penetrating the dream life of others in a direct creative process. Karen also spent the time developing relationships with people at risk at the St-James Drop-In Centre in Montreal.

In French. Since its founding in Montreal in 1998 by Kiya and Ziya Tabassian, Constantinople has devoted itself to finding a new and creative approach to interpreting Medieval and Renaissance music, and the vocal traditions of Europe, the East and even the New World. They are passionate about world music as well, to which they bring both freedom and discipline. Poet José Acquelin was a natural partner. Together, they are a pure expression of the concept we were looking for.

Bilingual. For this occasion only, at Ex-Centris

In response to popular demand, we’re remounting a show we took to Berlin for the Poetry Festival in June 2007. In the usual poetry evening poets take turns on stage, but in this show they never leave. That forces them to do something with their “performance body”, and the result is remarkable ensemble work. These are artists with some serious poetry stagecraft after all. Performance all-star Alexis O’Hara marries cabaret weirdness and experimental sound. Writer-editor-columnist Michel Vézina was for many years a circus artist. Fortner Anderson, growing into his own intensity, raises the risk factor with every show. D. Kimm, meanwhile, continues to walk the tightrope of fragility.

Our wordsmiths have found some extraordinary companions in this venture. Marvellous Brazilian-born dancer Luciane Pinto shows us the body can speak, while resourceful responsive Bernard Falaise and Michel F Côté put up a musical backboard (sometimes it’s a net) for performers flinging themselves into empty air. Now add the ambient visuals of Brigitte Henry, the delicate lighting of Claude Cournoyer, and the faultless sound mix of Bernard Grenon.

It’s an uncategorizable show, and it’s booked into the Cassavetes theatre. You probably didn’t know there was a fabulous stage hidden behind the screen. For opening that door to the underground and taking a risk on words, Ex-Centris, we salute you.

A co-production of Les Filles électriques and Ex-Centris — Série Boulevard Saint-Laurent

Open mic, bilingual.