Theatre Preview: Local artists draw lines in the sand with 'CINERAMA'
A play that isn’t really a play, CINERAMA defies expectations by making the stage the backdrop of Spanish Banks.
This month, local artists will play in the sand and call it art. Fight With a Stick Performance is bringing their next performance to Point Grey’s Spanish Banks. CINERAMA will be live cinema with no story, plot or actors, on the shifting sands of the low tide flats.
For daring art seekers, CINERAMA encompasses an interdisciplinary experience that will expand your expectations of what theatre and performing arts can be.
Image: Natalie Purschwitz
Daily Hive spoke to the show’s director, Steven Hill, about this unconventional work in the sand.
Instead of focusing on a written script or identifiable heroes, Hill is “interested with working with what’s already present.”
Due to the shifting nature of the tides, each performance is unique, and under a natural time-restraint — it’s only a couple of hours before the artists (and audience) need to retreat back to shore.
In contrast to on-trend ‘site-specific’ productions, Hill and his collaborators aren’t imposing their ideas on the space or abiding to a prescribed narrative. “We’re trying to bring forward what is usually background. To draw attention to how we perceive the world, not just the what—which is what we’re usually focused on in theatre.”
Image: Natalie Purschwitz
The move towards decentering the human experience also carries an important environmental message, surrounded by the tankers and freighters off Vancouver’s coastline.
“Spanish Banks is an interesting spot – it’s an overlap and contact zone from earliest days of indigenous European contact. We’re all sitting in a kind of environmental crisis. We’re living in these narratives of catastrophe,” says Hill.
Hill is quick to point out who shouldn’t come to see the show: “Anyone who doesn’t want to get wet.” Furthermore, CINERAMA might not agree with those used to traditional theatre, where the written word is the primary driver of a piece, and you kind of know where things are going.
This isn’t your typical post-dinner entertainment, and even getting to the location will be part of the adventure. Check out this incredibly accurate map from the event website:
Image: Fight With A Stick
Wear your sensible sandals out for this jaunt along the beach at low tide, as the production company plays with movement among the tides, in the backdrop of Supernatural BC, featuring those menacing oil tankers.
See also
CINERAMA – Fight with a Stick Performance
- Where: Spanish Banks Beach – 4801 NW Marine Dr, Vancouver
- When: June 15 to 18, June 21 to 30 – times vary according to the tides, check website 24 hours before performance for updates
- Tickets: At Universe, $20
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