Up on the slopes of Mt. Elphinstone, a 35-member cast and crew are getting ready to present a unique theatrical adventure. Tinkers, a play based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Paul Harding, has captured the imagination of The Only Animal theatre troupe.
It’s about a roving tinker and his relationship with the natural world. In this performance set in the forest, the audience will follow the man on his journey through the bushes, into the clearings, among the plum and apple trees in the orchard and into the cedar shake family home in the woods. Along the way they will hear music as they walk, be seated on stumps and rocks to watch clever puppetry and come to know a family through the performance of live actors.
The peddler with his donkey and wagon is subject to epileptic fits and he is estranged from his family, but that doesn’t stop a young boy from searching for his long lost father.
“The novel is so large,” said the play’s artistic director Kendra Fanconi, who has worked on structuring it towards this site. What she liked about the book is the tinker’s response to nature – he’s ecstatic. “That’s my response to nature as well,” she said. “He aligns his life with his heart.”
A desire for a better relationship with nature drove Fanconi out of the city and she now lives in Roberts Creek. Though the theatre company is Vancouver based, much of the cast for this show, actors and set designers, are from the Coast. Some of them are kids, but most are adult actors ready for the run of shows that will be performed from the July 25 preview through to Aug. 7. Fanconi suggests that the show is more appropriate for adults than children, but some mature kids might enjoy it.
The name The Only Animal came from a poem by Franz Wright that talks about humans being the only animals who do a variety of things including, “… perceive, the tall blue starry strangeness of being here at all.” Fanconi feels this line captures the theatre troupe’s values.
Two weeks before the first preview show, the site is a hive of activity, with Cody Chancellor and crew fashioning the seating, set designer Cornelia Konrads planning some interesting installations involving moss, and dramaturge Heidi Taylor checking out the scenes. Local musician Viviane Houle has composed music, Dark From Stars, especially for the finale. The cookshack is busy transforming into a concession stand that will sell nibblies, cedar lemonade and cedartinis to the audience.
The show is unplugged – you’ll see maybe one bar on your phone on the site – and it will play rain or shine. Come early at 6 p.m., if you like, with a picnic to chill beforehand. But be sure and buy your tickets in advance because 60 people are the maximum for each performance. Tickets are from $10 to $25, available at www.share-there.com.
The performance takes place up the East Wilson Forest Service Road. After heading uphill at the traffic light on Roberts Creek Road, continue straight ahead until you reach the start of the marked service road. From here it’s rough gravel – you may want to get a ride through the ride-sharing site of share-there. Ten minutes up the road and two bridges later you will be directed towards parking and then it’s a ten-minute walk through the woods to the first scene.
Directions and information are at www.theonlyanimal.com. Preview performances are on July 25 and 27 with no shows on Tuesdays. Opening night is on Thursday, July 28 at 7 p.m. The 7 p.m. shows continue from July 29 through Aug. 7 with 2 p.m. matinees on July 31 and Aug. 1, 6 and 7.
