FREE FALL ’10 an interdisciplinary performance festival (Theatre Centre/Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage). Various venues. Today (Thursday, March 18) to March 28. Pwyc-$30, festival pass $60. 416-973-4000, info at theatrecentre.org.
Free Fall is an exhilarating if unpredictable experience.
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Same’s true of the biennial Free Fall Festival sponsored by the Theatre Centre and World Stage. While the interdisciplinary fest focuses on cutting-edge performance “without a net,” this fifth Free Fall, beginning today, looks backward as well as forward.
“We realized that of the nine productions we’re presenting, three feature senior artists – Tanya Mars, Hillar Liitoja and Bill James – who have helped define alternative performance in Canada,” says Theatre Centre artistic director Franco Boni, festival co-curator with Cathy Gordon.
“They are mentors to a younger group of creators. Free Fall is a great opportunity to offer a cross-generational conversation as well as a passing on of knowledge and craft.
“All three have devoted their careers to an arts practice that lives in the margins. It’s important for a younger generation to know and understand that having a career in the margin is viable. In fact, as Bob Wallace suggests in his book Producing Marginality, the marginal is one way of defining Canadian culture.”
Mars, a pioneer in Canadian performance, opens the festival with Six Images In Search Of An Artist: Remix, a 14-hour installation that uses the senses as starting point for non-linear, imagistic narratives about truth and reality.
DNA Theatre remounts Wit In Love, a look at philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein that features Liitoja in a site-specific show. Last fall NOW’s Glenn Sumi called the show “lots of fun,” helped by “Liitoja’s intense presence.”
Interdisciplinary dance artist James, who rejects classical forms in favour of what he calls “freedom and reality” in performance, collaborates with the descriptively titled Old Men Dancing (see preview, this page).
In addition, look for new pieces by troupes like Why Not Theatre, Vancouver’s Chop Theatre and One Reed Theatre (see online extra).
“What excites me about a festival like this,” notes Boni, “is the opportunity to work with small groups from across the country, breaking down the lines drawn between the disciplines.
“It also introduces artists from across the country to Toronto’s artists and audiences. The adventurous nature of previous Free Falls has influenced the kind of programming here in town, at the Theatre Centre and elsewhere.”
This year’s festival also includes The Culture Congress, a forum in which Canadian and Irish artists look at how we come together, in the process seeking an exchange of practical skills and ideas.
Boni returns to the importance of mentorship, the generosity of established artists instructing a new group of those who will become their peers.
“They are, after all, the ones who taught us, listened to our stupid ideas and guided us through hard times.”
jonkap@nowtoronto.com
