DETAILS

ATP presents the Enbridge playRites Festival of New Canadian Plays
Martha Cohen Theatre
Wednesday, February 4 - Sunday, March 8

More in: Theatre

If you happen to notice a tuba spewing flames in Olympic Plaza this month, there’s no need for alarm. It’s part of NiX, one of four plays being staged at Alberta Theatre Projects’ annual playRites Festival.

If you spend any time downtown, it’s a show that will be hard to miss, literally. Most of the action takes place inside a 13-metre geodesic dome that dominates the Plaza. What’s more, the set is made entirely of snow and ice, a first for Canada.

NiX is a co-production between ATP, Ghost River Theatre and The Only Animal, the Vancouver-based theatre company that created and designed it. The Only Animal has a history of doing large-scale productions in public spaces. It was after its 2005 show, Other Freds, a production involving more than 100 performers on Granville Island, that ATP invited The Only Animal to design a show for a public space in Calgary.

Kendra Fanconi, who wrote and directed NiX, travelled to Calgary to scope out possibilities. “I was trying to imagine Calgary with loads of snow on the ground, and the theatre of snow and ice came out,” Fanconi says. She had previously tossed the idea about as a proposal for the 2010 Olympics.

A lengthy and involved development process followed, one that included snow caving and consulting Calgary’s weather data for the past 20 years. A member of the Canadian Snow Sculpture Team, Carl Schlichting, got on board to build the set, which uses 25 dump trucks full of snow.

With all the spectacle surrounding the actual theatre, Fanconi wanted to make sure the story that unfolds inside it is also compelling. “We took inspiration from the materials of snow and ice themselves. The most dramatic thing that could happen would be a thaw,” Fanconi says. “It’s a love story, essentially, set at the end of the world when a strange ice age hits.”

The characters are a strange lot dealing with surreal predicaments. The leading lady is 10-and-a-half months pregnant, and her baby will not come. A girl with unique powers is trying to create a new family to replace the one she’s lost, and the leading man is an arsonist determined to wipe out the survivors. “In some ways, it’s an environmental parable,” Fanconi says. “The arsonist’s basic belief is that the planet would be a lot better off without humans.”

Needless to say, the challenges of mounting a show in a theatre made of snow and ice are many. The crew has taken precautions to make sure the theatre doesn’t melt away in the event of a chinook. Fans are used to suck out heat, there are tarps to cover part of the set during the day and the dome is positioned so as to avoid as much sun as possible.

Costuming is also a big deal. The actors have to be warm and comfortable in sub-zero temperatures, and the costumes have to be waterproof and durable. Audience members are encouraged to bring blankets and wear big boots to watch the show.

Fanconi credits her childhood as the daughter of a local politician as one reason she enjoys theatre in public spaces. “Public spaces can be transformed into being beautiful, theatrical. That sense that you can change the world was part of my upbringing. How I change the world, however, is through creative public acts, not through legislation,” she says with a laugh. “It creates a kind of public sculpture, a trace of an event that sticks in people’s memories.”

This summer, The Only Animal will première a play on a beach in Vancouver with, you guessed it, a set made of sand. It is also hoping to stage NiX at the 2010 Olympics. However, if you want to see the production in Calgary, Fanconi emphasizes that the time is now. “It’s not going to come back ever again. It’s fleeting,” she says, just like the mound of snow in which the show takes place.