Sometimes Neal and I surprise each other with a special secret Date Night - we book it into the calendar and tell each other not to book anything else. It's another fun way that we like to enjoy our dates with each other. I heard about an upcoming show that would be something we'd both be interested in, so I booked us tickets and planned out the night from there!
Fringe Festival I've heard of the Calgary Fringe Festival before, but we've never attended any of their shows. Truth be told, I've always been put off by their logo - a Jester - and always assumed it would be a lot of dirty hippies playing with their devil sticks and doing a lot of spoken word stream-of-consciousness poetry. It turns out, at least from last night's experience, I was wrong! Our night started when we drove down to the heart of Historic Inglewood, and parked in a city lot for $2. TWO DOLLARS. I couldn't believe it - can the night get any better? We had to purchase a button from the Fringe Festival Information Booth, which allows us entry to the venue, along with our tickets. I believe the $5 for the buttons goes towards the organization, rather than the individual artists. Gravity Espresso & Wine Bar Our first stop of the night was the Gravity Espresso & Wine Bar, which was a few blocks down from the Information Booth. It's a beautiful little coffee house that offers blended coffee beverages, beer, wine, and light meals. We were there about an hour before the performance time, so we grabbed a drink and a panini to share. The panini had cheese, roasted red peppers and Spolombo’s sausage. I think every restaurant in Inglewood has Spolumbo’s sausage on the menu, right? We sat down at the end of a large picnic-style table and enjoyed each other’s company for the hour leading up to the show. Eavesdrop: The Coffee Shop Show About 10 minutes before the performance began, we were each given a set of wireless headphones, and asked to move to another table so we’d be able to see the actors within the space. Looking around the coffee shop, we saw that almost all of the other patrons were also part of the audience – there were maybe one or two coffee shop customers who weren’t part of the show (as an audience member, cast or crew). The headphones were completely noise-canceling, and all we could hear was the music, sound effects and pre-recorded voices of the actors. There were three actors playing seven different roles throughout the 50 minute immersive experience. It was set up as if we were out enjoying our own moments at the coffee shop, and eavesdropping in on complete strangers. Because the audio was pre-recorded, the actors were actually miming out their parts, interacting with each other without actually saying a word. However, thanks to our headsets, we were privy to their inner and outer thoughts. Each character was riddled with complexities, insecurities, doubt and frustrations, yet generally kept themselves composed on the outside. We could hear their internal dialogues, and the general minutia of noise that goes through each person’s head every waking minute – bits of half-remembered conversations, the voices of loved ones, general anxieties about when the grocery store closes, etc. The show really demonstrated how each one of us lives a truly complex and complete life onto ourselves. It’s difficult to see this in each other, but each life we touch – ever so briefly – is as rich and complex and neurotic and insecure as our very own. The setting of a coffee shop was truly inspired, as it’s in small, intimate places like this we come to connect with each other on a human level, while never actually opening up to each other. During the show, the coffee shop was in full swing. Many patrons came in, ordered their drinks, sat down inside or out, and wondered what, exactly, we were all doing in headphones staring at three mutes. That’s truly part of the fascination with the piece – we were actively engaged in the theatre experience in a way that outsiders wouldn’t be. It was a private way for the twenty-odd audience members to share in a moment. It was a very memorable show, not just because of the unique environment or immersive experience, but because it touched on a concept I’m always fascinated with, ever since I heard this (possibly made-up) term: sonder. Sonder: The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own – populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness. It’s probably not a real word, or a real definition, but I’m always touched at this concept: Everyone is just as unique and complex as I am. Everyone is fighting their own fight, just like I am. Everyone is the Special, just like I am. Thank you, Fringe Festival and Swallow-A-Bicycle Theatre for reminding me of this in a creative and emotional way. http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/456-eavesdrop-the-coffee-shop-show Hose & Hound After the show, we went across the street to the Hose & Hound Pub, which used to be an old Firehall. I’ve never been there before, although Neal had for a TELUS event a number of years ago. It was wing night – and who can say no to wing night! The food was good, the beer was cold, the waitress was nice, and the people . . . well, the people. I wasn’t so sure we weren’t still on stage! I wish my memory was better, or I wish I could have recorded their entire conversation. They were loud enough, I could have used my iPhone to do so! About six or eight of them – younger than us, and much louder. They were comic-enthusiasts, atheists, and I’m quite sure Redditors. They were, as we say, “from the internet”. One of the running themes throughout their conversation was Batman, which they kept coming back to. Neal did point out, however, that one of them was wearing a Batman t-shirt. We were treated to quasi-philosophical discussions about Batman, Batgirl, gender inequality, the Golden Age of comics and which of Archie’s girlfriends (Betty or Veronica) would be more sexually frigid. At some of their comments (“Well we all do – but he does it twice a day which makes it gross”), I know they could hear us laughing with them and at them – and I don’t think they cared. Once Neal actually applauded their philosophy (“Someone out there is right – probably the atheists – there is no God”), and we really did enjoy eavesdropping into a whole other world for a few hours. Undress Me The last show of the night was at the Fringe Festival Hall – a one-man show called Undress Me. In 50 minutes, we were exposed to an intensely personal and emotionally raw narrative, written and acted out by Kevin Gabel. He played a complex and passionate character who comes back to his apartment after the rehearsal dinner for his brother’s wedding. Throughout the narrative, and the half-bottle of liquor he goes through, he undresses himself – figuratively and literally. By the end, he’s in nothing by his underwear, and is emotionally vulnerable to the whole audience. The suave, confident and cocky outerwear slowly begins to slough off as he retells his heartbreak growing up, moving out, growing up, and realizing he’s never going to be happy, and he’s never going to be loved. His narcissism is event in every scene, and hits its highest point when someone viewing him on his webcam comments that his abs aren’t what they used to be – and he’s really lost the only thing he’s ever taken pride in: his physical appearance. I’m not an actor, and so I’m always so incredibly impressed with these types of roles and characters. In 60 minutes he went through 27 years of emotions, and really established how he grew and (almost) dies as a character and a human being. And then, he gets to do it again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. The emotional toll from being a one-man author, playwright and actor must be immense. It’s exhausting even imagining that kind of emotional and physical fortitude required to be on stage – literally (and metaphorically) undressed. I connected it, of course, to the last show we saw, and the group of friends at the pub. We're all so very unique and so very complex. Yet, we all put on a variety of fronts: ego, narcissism, bravery; we all try to fit into our groups through clothing, speech, mannerisms; we all have unique thoughts and desires; and we all want to be loved and accepted. http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/434-undress-me Date Night It was, as you can tell, an amazing Date Night. We got to see and experience so many fantastic and new things! We were able to take in two new shows, and two new restaurants, while exploring the remarkable and amazingly diverse city we both call home. I know we’re going to be seeing what the Calgary Fringe Festival has to offer in the coming years, and I think we’ll even get down to Inglewood more often. We might not always have to buy tickets, but we know there’s always going to be a show. -Monti
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AuthorMonti Tanner (he/him) BEd, BA, MEd Archives
May 2023
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