by Anne Washburn
directed by Joanna Garfinkel
TigerMilk Collective is thrilled to present the Canadian premiere of Obie award-winner Anne Washburn’s Apparition. In this delightful play, refugees from Macbeth explore the muddy terrain of nightmares and performing. It is an “irresistible collection of gothic tales that puts one in mind of an excellent late-night storytelling session at the Vincent Price camp for disturbed children…” according to The New York Times.
Washburn is able to straddle the world of monsters and spooks with the delicacy of the struggles inherent to Macbeth. Lust, murder, dancing and gags—this show does not hold back.
In Apparition (an uneasy play of the underknown), five characters emerge into a cranky backstage. “After the banquet goes wrong, after everyone’s gone, after they’re standing there alone talking about rowing in blood, after he says it is still night and she says it’s dark, but it’s glimmering…After that. After that we enter.” They proceed to squabble, tease, scare and sing as they navigate their way through this ghostworld.
The play, which premiered in New York in 2005, subverts the horror genre with beautiful language, modern humour and trembling insight into the classic tragedy it fractures with theatrical conventions.
TigerMilk Collective first came to prominence in the Vancouver theatre scene in 2006 with member Miranda Huba’s play Hospital City, which brought an overlay of urban pop to traditional storytelling. This stylistic approach was continued in their exploration of women’s contradictory impulses within their fantasies and nightmares in Stupid Little Girls (2007). This approach is perfect for Apparition, which locates both a familiar tragedy and the horror genre in a lonely, modern city. TigerMilk has a history of creating electric and stunning physical imagery, which lends itself to this modern ghost story.
Joanna Garfinkel recently completed her MFA in directing at UBC, where her production of Big Love drew acclaim for her deft direction and unique ability to draw “excellent performances from her cast,” according to the Vancouver Courier. Her dynamic and physical style have been developing since her time in Austin, Texas where she “succeed[ed] in animating the show's bizarre mix of personalities with feeling and clarity,” (Austin Chronicle) with her production of the celebrated Rude Mechanicals' premiere of Don’t Drown.
This production of Apparition will combine the brave new forms of TigerMilk with Washburn’s poetic language and Garfinkel’s potent physicality. This rare and exciting theatre event is not to be missed.
