DETAILS

OYR's 23rd Annual High Performance Rodeo
Big Secret Theatre
Monday, January 5 - Saturday, January 31

More in: Theatre

Michael Green, the curator of the High Performance Rodeo — One Yellow Rabbit’s annual multidisciplinary arts festival — likens himself to a cross between Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. He means to say he sees himself as a kind of gleeful über-gifter for artistic-minded Calgarians. However, given the monstrous vein of several of this year’s shows, it’s just as easy to imagine a creature, half-man and half-rabbit, stuffing eggs under the dried ruins of late January’s leftover Christmas trees.

If the image seems overly dramatic, it’s because after 23 years, the High Performance Rodeo continues to live large in the city’s arts scene. From the colossal cachet of minimalist composer Philip Glass to the Rabbits’ own adaptation of the monster-slaying Epic of Gilgamesh (here transported to the comfort of La-Z-Boy recliners) to Catalyst Theatre’s papier mâché-inspired Frankenstein, there’s no shortage of monsters in this year’s festival.

With a reputation that extends through film, dance and theatre, Philip Glass will be making his second solo appearance (January 21) at the High Performance Rodeo. Before he does, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra will perform Glass’s Low Symphony (January 16 to 17), a symphonic cover of three tracks from the eponymous David Bowie and Brian Eno album, Low. Then, along with the genre-spanning Kronos Quartet (January 23), Glass will perform his commissioned score for Universal Pictures’ re-release of 1931’s Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, during a screening of the film.

Where Lugosi is known for his role as an iconic filmic monster, the Rabbits’ own contribution to the festival features a protagonist who defines the term “hero”: the Sumerian god-king Gilgamesh. Directed by Blake Brooker, Gilgamesh La-Z-Boy (January 27 to 31) will feature a trio of the ensemble’s core performers — Green, Denise Clarke and Andy Curtis — in an epic story of friendship, immortality and that most timeless of narrative devices: action.

Of course, in a story that sees epic battles against the likes of the demon Humbaba and The Bull of Heaven, some scaling down of the production values is essential. With little more than their hand-held microphones, which serve as props including horns and swords, and sitting in La-Z-Boy recliners, Gilgamesh’s actors are grounded in unique physicality that will take them from epic battles with otherworldly monsters to the journeys between.

“It’s kind of funny that I’m playing Gilgamesh, because Gilgamesh is a giant and all-powerful and, you know, I’m a weedy, middle-aged actor with a big nose,” says Green, smiling. “That’s the beauty of storytelling, because, we’re not afraid of how comical that is. Once the story starts to unfold, we’ve discovered that the audience begins to fill in the whole widescreen road movie adventure, complete with all the colours, all the details and all the changing costumes that don’t exist except in their minds.”

For Clarke, who serves as the production’s choreographer, inspiration came from the grooves of the cuneiform on the epic’s original tablets, and the production’s titular chairs. “What appealed to me immediately about that was the notion of lounging with a story, cuddling in Friendly Giant style,” she says. “It’s important for us to perform in a relaxed manner, and you don’t get more relaxed than a La-Z-Boy.”

Likewise, Catalyst Theatre’s Frankenstein (January 21 to 25), a musical version of Mary Shelley’s immortal novel, embraces the limitations of its production with an inventive, two-dimensional twist. Its set and costumes are made entirely out of paper, and the production lends a storybook quality to a romantic-era novel that remains a disquieting fable about ambition and humanity. Produced by Edmonton’s Catalyst Theatre, Frankenstein is a co-presentation by the Rodeo and Theatre Calgary, and represents an important collaboration between the Rabbits and Calgary’s largest theatre company. It’s the first time the two companies have worked together since the 1997 production of High Life.

As in all previous festivals, the Rodeo continues to emphasize its connections to Calgary artists. This year, in the spirit of the now-defunct Mutton Busting mini-festival that used to fit snugly inside the Rodeo, Midway (January 8 to 10) will feature local musicians, contorntionists, tarot readers and more. Grandstand (January 8 to 10), starting in the evenings after the Midway closes, will feature local musicians interpretations of popular tunes, and Freakshow (January 8 to 10), with a booth in the Midway, will take you through the dark recesses of the Epcor Centre for interesting performances. Adding both Calgary and One Yellow Rabbit connections, Clarke’s movement-inspired Radio Play (January 14 to 15) will run before OYR ensemble member Onalea Gilbertson takes to the Beat Niq stage for From Berlin to Hollywood (January 23), a cabaret performed with the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble.

Even one out-of-province addition proves to have a local connection. While Elegant Heathens (January 7 to 8) by choreographer Deborah Dunn’s Trial & Eros is an import from Montreal, its première was in Calgary, much to Green’s chagrin. “This show’s been to Calgary,” he says as though he were imparting a juicy piece of gossip. “It played Dancers’ Studio West — came and went. No one saw it.”

For Green, the production’s underwhelming reception was unacceptable for a show he calls “the most engaging and hilarious piece of dance theatre I have seen.” “It’s not enough that this comes and goes and no one sees it,” he says. “This has to be seen.”

Of course, with four weeks of performances and artists from across the country and as far away as Germany (Theaterlabor’s Body Fragments and Absurdesque), what has to be seen is always a difficult question to resolve without quoting the festival guide verbatim. From a new work by Jean-Daniel Lafond, acclaimed Quebec filmmaker and the current Governor General’s consort, to the festival’s $150-a-plate “High Performance Chefs,” the Rodeo offers a range of performances and disciplines whose relationship to one another seems tenuous at best.

Despite including disciplines as varied as dance, film and food, for Green, the tie that binds the festival’s disparate material is its theatricality. Monstrous or otherwise, the Rodeo’s half-man, half-rabbit curator will continue to seek it out. “I have no problem pulling the theatrical from any milieu,” saying that the process is always intuitive. “The Canada Council once upon a time set out to write a paper distinguishing dance-theatre and theatre-dance, and I refuse to enter any kind of conversation like that,” he says. “If it’s successful and theatrical and I love it, I want it and I want to share it with theatre.”