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raven_cromwellA few weeks back, Amal El Mohtar dropped this tantilizing tidbit into subscriber inboxes:
Y'all, a thing could not have been created! more specifically to be my jam. Tam Lin vibes! Amal's writing, which is still some of the most gloriously luminous I've read!q ueer rep right there in the blurb. And some Welsh influences, which're particularly near and dear to me after years steeped in very particular Welsh-centric HP headcanoning.
And I could see this glorious thing, for roughly $12, thanks to the Ottawa Fringe fest going virtual. I was even more intrigued because all three of these authors were queer canadian speculative fiction phenomenons, and while I only knew Amal, the other two had been on my radar for a while.
But money is tight, and I'd not heard of this Margo before. Thus began browsing for info about Elephant Girls. Only to find that it twas a play about a female gang in London, with the protagonist being enforcer and beloved of the dangerous leader.
At which I began to keen over the vagueries of timing, because if I'd discovered MacDonald's work but a month ago, I could've seen this gloriousness virtually. (Am hard-crossing my fingers for re-broadcasts.)
What I did get to see was the magnificent trailer, and MacDonald left me pinned to the edge of my seat from a 50-sec clip, because she just fucking radiates charisma and brutality:
OH! just watch that awful, wicked gleam on nasty. And the vicious glee over fine women and fine clothes!
At that point, I would've listened to MacDonald read the fucking phonebook and gleefully went to purchase tickets--which seemingly cover unlimited on demand watches for the ten days of the fest.
As further enticement, have the teaser trailer:
I'm hoping we get another, longer piece that'll showcase her vocal work at some point, because I can't help being selfishly disappointed this one's so visual. But holy shit, I still can't wait for the 17th!
How do you rehearse a show over Zoom? How do you learn a script when everyone's pointing out the cognitive effects of the past year have been particularly bad for memory? How do you perform for a camera when one of the key differences between your art form and cinema is the presence of a live audience?
Well, back in February, my dear friend Margo – whom I've known for almost 20 years, whose work I've loved and admired for fully that long – brought these questions to Kelly Robson, A. M. Dellamonica and me, and asked if we'd consider collaborating on a project with her for the Fringe. Rather than try to adapt a script for this very strange moment, she invited each of us to write a 20-minute monologue on the theme of abduction for her to perform to a camera.
We did – without consulting with each other as we wrote. Our only brief besides the theme was to include the words "dressed as people" in our respective pieces.
The result: Kelly wrote "Skinless," a devastating ghost story set in 1950s Ireland; Alyx wrote "Repositioning," a hilarious and unnerving piece about a stand-up comedian on the lesbian-cruise-circuit in our very near future; and I wrote "The Shape of My Teeth," set in Regency Britain on the Welsh border, about the aftermath of fairy abduction and being left behind.
I can't begin to tell you how blown away I am by the result – and all I've seen is the raw footage, without any of the audio production SIESKI will be providing. They're three very different pieces, but the whole they make is incredible. Margo – working with director Mary Ellis, who also directed her phenomenal The Elephant Girls – had a single week to memorize, rehearse and record each monologue, with props, costume, and settings provided by her genius partner (and Associate Producer) Titus. I couldn't be prouder of the work we've done together, or more in awe of what Margo's achieved here.
Y'all, a thing could not have been created! more specifically to be my jam. Tam Lin vibes! Amal's writing, which is still some of the most gloriously luminous I've read!q ueer rep right there in the blurb. And some Welsh influences, which're particularly near and dear to me after years steeped in very particular Welsh-centric HP headcanoning.
And I could see this glorious thing, for roughly $12, thanks to the Ottawa Fringe fest going virtual. I was even more intrigued because all three of these authors were queer canadian speculative fiction phenomenons, and while I only knew Amal, the other two had been on my radar for a while.
But money is tight, and I'd not heard of this Margo before. Thus began browsing for info about Elephant Girls. Only to find that it twas a play about a female gang in London, with the protagonist being enforcer and beloved of the dangerous leader.
At which I began to keen over the vagueries of timing, because if I'd discovered MacDonald's work but a month ago, I could've seen this gloriousness virtually. (Am hard-crossing my fingers for re-broadcasts.)
What I did get to see was the magnificent trailer, and MacDonald left me pinned to the edge of my seat from a 50-sec clip, because she just fucking radiates charisma and brutality:
OH! just watch that awful, wicked gleam on nasty. And the vicious glee over fine women and fine clothes!
At that point, I would've listened to MacDonald read the fucking phonebook and gleefully went to purchase tickets--which seemingly cover unlimited on demand watches for the ten days of the fest.
As further enticement, have the teaser trailer:
I'm hoping we get another, longer piece that'll showcase her vocal work at some point, because I can't help being selfishly disappointed this one's so visual. But holy shit, I still can't wait for the 17th!
