i've had a great couple of nights enjoying the fantabulous PuSh festival! i'd been hearing friends rave about it for years (when i was in toronto), and i gotta tell you, it is very much living up to its excellent reputation.
it's funny, because i was sad, leaving calgary, to be missing the High Performance Rodeo. (another festival of local and international theatre, music, dance, etc.) i'd looked over the program, and there were a number of shows i was interested in seeing. i was also sad that i would be missing the Old Trout Puppet Workshop's remounting of "Famous Puppet Death Scenes" at another calgary theatre, in february.
but lucky for me, the PuSh festival features some of the shows i'd been wanting to see at the Rodeo AND it also has the Old Trouts show. how very excellent!! so i don't feel i'm missing anything at all! (well, except for Pan Pan Theatre, the company from ireland whose director i'd met a few times before. it would've been great to share a pint or two with him again.) but otherwise, i think i even prefer PuSh.
it was interesting to compare the two festivals. in many ways, they're very similar. both are international, multidisciplinary, edgy. both feature more experimental-type performances. but the Rodeo is more... well... it's radical, like punk. but punk was 30 years ago... PuSh somehow seems a little more contemporary. hip. young. (i wonder if thats more a reflection on the audience, or the curators?)
for instance, last night i saw "Sonata for Violin and Turntables." it was an amazing musical performance by New York violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) and DJ Scientific, and it blew my fucking mind. also noteworthy was that it was in the Chan Centre at UBC, a really beautiful theatre i'd only ever been to once before, for a friend's graduation. it was also nice to stroll the old grounds, a beautiful campus all dusty with snow. and to top it all off, i had killer seats - right beside the curator, so you know they're the best!! it was a perfect evening.
at the Rodeo, i would have seen Alejandro Escovedo, a very highly-reputed performer who's been perfecting his craft for 4
decades. i'm sure i would have loved Escovedo, but PuSh offered me a couple of young, urban hipsters doing something i'd never heard before. and it was SO good!! i wouldn't have traded last night for anything.
here's another example: i saw some of the PuSh opening night show, "Quizoola." in a 6-hour long performance, 3 british hipsters in clown makeup take turns asking each other questions (some scripted, some not), and answering them (not scripted). lit by naked lightbulbs. in a garage. it was really neat, with some truly deep and challenging moments, and some truly hilarious moments. and ok sure, a couple of boring ones too. but it was great, and again, it was something i'd never seen before. at the Rodeo, i would have seen awesome but aging porn star and performance artist Annie Sprinkle marry her lesbian lover. which is neat, and i'm sure was a hell of a party, but.. well, i think PuSh is just a little more up my alley.
that said, the Rodeo does have a way cooler graphic. i'm rather stunned, actually, that the PuSh festival is actually using the Old Trouts' image. couldn't they come up with their own?? it seems kind of lazy, actually. (shrug)
so anyway, i intend to enjoy the hell out of PuSh! as i told the curator last night, he's 2 for 2! if you're in vancouver, you should definitely check it out: http://pushfestival.ca *
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*for some reason, the hyperlink feature isn't available on this computer. must be an older OS or something.. sorry!
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