Curiosity & Joy: August 2006

Weapons of Mass Distraction

Weapons of Mass Distraction. 9:00pm Thursday, August 17, 24. Rabbittown Theatre at the corner of Merrymeeting Rd. & Linscott St. / 709 739 8220. $5.

Improv is risky business for an actor. Take Colin Mochrie. Whose Line is it Anyway?- good. CBC’s Carol Burnett Show spoof - bad. Improv comedy troupe, The Weapons of Mass Distraction’s show is a series of improvisational theatre games. Here’s the deal. Suggestions for settings, situations, famous people or whatnot are solicited from the audience. The boys then improvise a scene based on a set different rules or constraints for each game. Hilarity ensures. No, really, it does. Marc Nicolson has a voicebox full of accents. You’ll need a baseball glove to catch all Tim Ronan’s lines. Pat Demsey should be wearing a helmet and Andrew Halliday is a rubberface (in a good way). Ronan also acts as host and central scrutinizer for crowd suggestions. The only thing I’d like to see them try is something that Calgary improv pioneers Loose Moose Theatre do; there, the audience is given sponge Boo Bricks that be can chucked on stage to stop the scene and put everyone out of their misery if the sketch happens to take the offramp to Suck. Of the nine games last Thursday I would have only tossed one, but it would have landed in St. Lawrence.

(Submitted Photo of Pat Dempsey and Tim Ronan of Weapons of Mass Distraction.)

Published in The Current on August 17, 2006.

Craft Council of Newfoundland & Labrador Annual Members Exhibit 2006

The Craft Council Gallery presents an eclectic exhibition of member's work featuring a variety of mediums and techniques, celebrating excellence in contemporary craft.

Craft is often regarded as the poor cousin to fine art. But, if you think that a bowl is a bowl is a bowl then also think about the possibilities of reimagining the bowl with that conceptual constant as the starting point. The artists in the Craft Councils’ Annual Members Exhibit push the limits of design while using some accepted characteristics of craft (material, tool, making, function, tradition and skill) as a common referent.

Of course, group shows are a bit like zoos. No particular piece is in its natural habitat but you get a pretty good idea of who’s interesting and who’s not. I was particularly taken by the felt sculptured vessels of Trine Schioldan. They’re like alien pods dipped in fuzzy jam. The collaborative piece by Jason Holley and Jay Kimball, “Up From the Pit, Down in Bay D’espoir” is also worth mentioning. The slow fade of the rings' colour combined with the more defined cast of the sun’s shadow (which is itself ephemeral) problematizes the received notion of chiascuro as only pertaining to painting and is just plain cool. You’ll be surprised and inspired. Craft is can be powerful. Google Madame Defarge, then go see this show.

(Submitted Photo of “Up From the Pit, Down in Bay D’espoir” by Jay Kimball and Jason Holley. Pit fired thrown bowl and hand built ceramics.)

Published in The Current on August 17, 2006.