Zip & Wick #72 :Endings

Welcome to another C’est La Vie Theatre podcast.  Today we have Zip & Wick #72: Endings : a play about superheroes and the end of the world by Tabia Lau.

You can find it on iTunes here.

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Zip & Wick #72: Endings was written by Tabia Lau.

Today’s performance was directed by Sarah Mahoney.

 

Jenna Gogan as Zip

Greg Van de Mark as Wick

Chana Ellman was the project manager.

Interview with Tabia Lau about Zip & Wick #72: Endings

Where are you from? Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec.

When did you start writing? I started in grade seven, eight, when I discovered online fanfiction and realized I could be an aspiring writer. Silly as it seems in retrospect, I had distanced authors, journalists and bloggers from myself, thinking they were distant, magical people I could only adore from afar but never join.

What inspires you? Strangers tend to inspire me most. I do a lot of people watching, on the metro, on the bus, in crowded areas where you catch a glimpse of someone taking a moment to themselves, or an interaction. Just a flicker of an enormous story you’ll never know, but it certainly takes my mind places I’d never go without seeing this one person flash in and out of my day.

What inspired this play? ‘Endings’ exploded out of my love for superheroes and the choices they make, the responsibilities and weight they bear. My fascination for enemies and their similarities, for communication and respectfully disagreeing, for connection and the oddest places you’ll find it. It began as a short story entitled ‘Soft Shoes’ and was then lengthened to the medium of a play as a birthday gift for a good friend who formerly aided me to realize its real potential. It went on to be staged for the yearly McGill Drama Festival, and just recently played at the Montreal Fringe Festival 2011.

What do you write other than plays? I tend to write bits of dialogue or short fiction pieces. During school I have very little time to write long pieces, so I keep a wide variety of blogs or facebook notes to continue working at it. Writing has always been a practice for me, not a gift.

What time of day do you write best? The time between 11:30PM and 3AM are without a doubt the best time of a day for me. A night owl through and through, I love the calm of the night, and usually get a lot of writing or important conversations down during this time. It’s when lights go out and everything slows down, and everyone is quieter, and the world is more honest.

Do you have a website/blog? Can I contact you? You can find all the information you’ll ever need on my facebook page , which ought to link you to all the other pages!

“There’s something awesome about only listening to a performance.” Charpo Review

Warzone

C’est La Vie goes into the heart of darkness

by Émilie Charlebois

I had heard positive things about C’est La Vie Theatre and so I sat down to listen to yesterday’s “Redshift” by Ed McNamara with pretty high hopes. First, I have to agree with Rachel Zuroff that it is super enjoyable to sit down for a play in your own home. It’s more comfortable, you can have a drink, and pause the performances or rewind them if there are any interruptions. I’ve been a fan of radio plays and dramas for a while. My family is made up of avid CBC radio listeners and I remember listening to some of the plays broadcast while returning from annual fishing trips. There’s something awesome about only listening to a performance. You really zone in and the imagery is all made up in your mind. I think my appreciation may have to do with this kind of transportation, similar to that provided by books, where for a moment you are in your own little world.

As listeners, we come in after three months, Syriana has reached her breaking point and demands to know what Rufus’ deal is.

“Redshift” is a short piece of about twenty minutes made up of three parts. It starts with a monologue (delivered by [CharPo columnist] Joel Fishbane) on what love isn’t and then cuts to Rufus (Luke Powers) a damaged (both mentally and physically) war veteran and his escort Syriana (Megan Stewart). After the brief scene between the two, the play concludes with another monologue on what love is. The relationship between Rufus and Syriana is…interesting. Not because she is an escort, but because she wishes she could just sleep with Rufus rather than play along with a charade he has set up where Syriana is only ever asked to come over to Rufus’ place to put on a nightgown, lie next to him and exchange banal pleasantries. As listeners, we come in after three months, Syriana has reached her breaking point and demands to know what Rufus’ deal is. Obviously the war has messed him up and he’s insecure about his mangled body. It was however hard to tell whether Rufus’ character was meant to sound like an emotionless robot or if Powers simply delivered his lines in a monotonous way. Although I would like to think that it was an intentional way of conveying how Rufus was now dead inside, it made for an unpleasant listening experience. It was boring.

Syriana started out in a similar way, but she then came through as she broke out of the character Rufus hired her to play. It seemed inconsistent with one of the plays other themes: love. The two monologues that sandwich Rufus and Syriana’s story were fun and talked about the pain and joy love comes with. I even found myself checking off on some of the behaviours listed in what love isn’t: “Yep, did that, also did that one…” But as far as Rufus was concerned, where was the hurt? Where was the anger? He seemed to have an interesting past, but the way he was portrayed (vocally) removed all depth from his character. Overall, I found McNamara’s work interesting, but the podcast didn’t quite effectively get the emotions across. But this seems to be a pretty difficult task without a body or facial expressions to support them.

http://charpo.blogspot.com/2011/07/review-redshift-podcast.html