Review: Toronto’s Necessary Angel Theatre’s: THE RESILIENCE PROJECT SHORTS
Joe Szekeres
Recently, I shared a most enjoyable conversation with Necessary Angel’s Artistic Director Alan Dilworth and artist Alana Bridgewater about the Resilience Project Shorts. In a press release I received from the company, Mr. Dilworth spoke about Necessary Angel’s “new ways to make meaning and connect with our communities in the face of the staggering challenges and changing circumstances of this time of the Covid -19 pandemic.” It’s also important not to forget how the social protests are also an integral part of where we are headed as we emerge slowly and move forward.
To begin this new path, Alan commissioned artists to create six, short digital works in response to their personal experience of isolation and change staggered over eight weeks from April 28 to June 20, covering a wide swath of local and global upheaval regarding the pandemic and the protests. I didn’t have the opportunity to watch the works the first night as I had another commitment but was able the following night.
First, a huge acknowledgement to Cameron Davis. Since theatre lovers for the moment must enjoy story telling on screen, his seamless work in tying all these short pieces together made for a half hour of personal reflection that certainly appealed to my senses of sight, sound, and hearing. I’ll be honest and say I had to look at these selections four times as, for me, so much was said in what was not being said thanks to Cameron’s tight video editing.
Some highly solid and genuine video selections from the work of artists Marie Farsi, Sina Gilani and Azad Imanirad, Tehseen and Aasim Jaffri, Erin Brandenburg, Alana Bridgewater and Meegwun Fairbrother. These artists were also responsible for the respective filming of their digital since, according to the press release sent to me, “The parameters of the project were the pieces needed to be between one and five minutes, to be personal and an offering for others, given the great uncertainty and precarity of this time.”
And for me, the uncertainty and precarity within these digital projects was this claustrophobic feeling of fear and isolation as if the daily sense of routine we are trying to keep going during this pandemic is leading us to no where. Yes, periodically, there are glimpses of hope in our perseverance; however, that hope to which we cling sometimes seems precarious and we will lose that grip on it.
I’m going to try not to spoil these shorts as much as I can. Apologies if that occurs.
Marie Farsi’s captivating radio voice in her wonderful oral essay “When Time Wants to be seen” spoke of her missing the space the theatre artist uses which has certainly changed for all of us. But listening to Ms. Farsi’s hypnotic voice heightened my sense of hearing as I wanted to listen to every consonant and syllable perfectly enunciated within this auditory experience. Marie concludes her oral essay not with a warning, but with an advisement of what are we going to do with the time that we have now.
The most powerful piece for me that voiced exactly what I am still experiencing is ‘These Days’ by Azad Imanirad and Sina Gilani. An extraordinary and visually haunting work with a voice over narration of clear enunciation that genuinely reflects the love affair I’ve also had with my bed in not wanting to get up some days during the pandemic, and not wanting to turn on the news to destroy the complete fulfilment of the bed loving me and me loving the bed.
Next was a two minute carefully choreographed work by Tehseen and Aasim Jaffri (‘As Stillness Hinges Chaos/Light and Truth’) that is also visually stimulating to watch. A couple (I assume a man/woman or husband/wife as she wears a dress) are blindfolded as they complete their solitary similar routine of living in the moment from exercising to reading and to prayer worshipping each day with their cat as their only companion. What is effectively and visually striking is the fact this couple is blindfolded by their scarves as masks. There is a sense of claustrophobia in this piece as the music appears to be stifled as we don’t hear all the lyrics.
Erin Brandenburg’s ‘Home Day’ sadly emphasizes this feeling of aloneness and isolation a couple experiences during this pandemic. It is a wide-angle camera lens which appears to capture the daily routine of a family with three young children. It appears the parents do not communicate with each other – they are in separate rooms with one of the children or if in the same room do not make eye contact. Everything during this day is for the kids, checking in on the kids. Who’s checking in on the adults?
Alana Bridgewater’s ‘The Twisted Road’ allowed me to glimpse, only momentarily, the confusion and fear of this time through the ‘Passengers’ and ‘The Future’. Alana skillfully speaks to us with words coming through such as ‘exasperation’ and ‘motion sickness’ while we see the faces of black women, sometimes hopeful, sometimes tired, sometimes watchful. Why are these women exasperated? When I hear ‘Some yell at cars, some pray to the ancestors’, it suddenly dawned on me that this short stems from the George Floyd killing. The use of black and white film with the thin, black line running through indicating its aging, tugs at my heart strings once again as this is a message from the past. Will this finally be the moment when the message is heard and listened?
Finally, Indigenous artist Meegwun Fairbrother, who I assume is the lone swimmer emerging from the water at the end of ‘Only You’, gracefully and sensitively made me aware of the plight of the Indigenous people. The use of the glistening, undulating patterns and the sound of the pebbles splashing in the water hypnotically took me away to be right there at that moment. The use of music first with a strumming guitar which was pleasant to hear and then the singer took us on another journey through space.
Once the film appeared to be in reverse, the voice of the singer appeared to be in pain. And yet, the emerging swimmer from the life-giving element of water indicates to me a hopeful future. It was during the third and fourth viewing where I turned on the close captioned so I could see the lyrics of the song being sung.
Check out the Resilience Projects Shorts at https://www.necessaryangel.com/the-resilience-project.