Tickets are starting to sell quickly for the third Reach for the Tap Trivia Fund Raiser.  Get yours today and vie for the illustrious trophy!  Friday, March 26, 7pm at the Halifax Club.

Buy Now!

Extinction Song is hilarious and frightening

The dysfunctional family never had it so good.

By Kate Watson

The Coast, Wed, Nov 18, 2009

Plays like Eastern Front’s Extinction Song make it very difficult to write without cliches. Phrases like “tour de force” and “an emotional rollercoaster” jump immediately to mind. But this play deserves much better than that.

Its writer, Ron Jenkins, never resorts to cliche, despite writing about the oft-explored dysfunctional family. This is James’ story, son of an alcoholic father and a mother who fails to protect him. James is both unlike any seven-year-old you know (articulate, precocious and disturbingly disturbed), and a lot like every child (curious, infuriating, imaginative, self-absorbed…). Actor Ron Pederson is utterly convincing as a child, so much so that it’s easy to forget he is a man in boys’ pajamas. As James tells his story, he acts out things that have happened to him, adopting the voice and mannerisms of the adults in his life. It’s both hilarious and frightening, words that pretty much sum up Extinction Song.

Extinction Song vividly evokes child’s world
Pederson ‘totally inhabits’ character of a seven-year-old
By ELISSA BARNARD Arts Reporter
The Herald, Thu. Nov 19

Playwright Ron Jenkins immerses you so deeply in the world of a seven-year-old boy that you experience adults the way he does — as hostile aliens.

Extinction Song, an award-winning hit in Edmonton last spring, is a riveting, rollicking story and a lament for the lost imaginary world of a boy who is forced to grow up and accept the real world.

With Extinction Song, Eastern Front Theatre brings Edmonton playwright and Cape Breton native Ron Jenkins’ work to his home province for the first time.

James, as incarnated for 90 minutes in an amazing performance by Toronto actor Ron Pederson, is a vivid, hyperbolic and very physical storyteller.

He believes his real parents died when their truck plunged through the ice and he was raised by the wolves who rescued him, including the beloved alpha wolf, Byzantine.

The magic of storytelling, staging and Pederson’s performance make Byzantine real. James’s quest to not be “extincted” by his parents and teachers is a serious one, and you cheer on for James and the wolves.

The play, which runs without intermission, starts off light and fervently boyish, then gets darker and darker.

The mid-section wobbles a bit where it’s unclear where the story is going and why the boy is so angry at his father, a Mountie, who turns out to be an alcoholic and a time bomb.

Pederson easily and convincingly slips into the father to portray a familiar type, a traditionally authoritarian male, who is sloppy and slobby but not uncaring.

His drinking makes him more neglectful than direly abusive.

Whether or not you forgive him is up to you.

Jenkins writes with a great deal of humour and accuracy to the age of seven and the time period of the early 1970s.

James, who loves language and precise description, peppers his talk with 1970s references like Kreskin, Detective Columbo and Evel Knievel.

This year Eastern Front Theatre has left the large Alderney Landing Theatre in Dartmouth for smaller Halifax venues and opens its 17th season in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s Windsor Foundation Theatre.

While this theatre has some challenges like visible bars on the exit door and lights set into the ceiling, it is very intimate and suits a one-person show.

You can’t be detached.

The design is a potent mix of light (Bruce MacLennan), sound (Dave Clarke), costumes, props and projections (Narda McCarroll) and set (D’Arcy Morris-Poultney).

Morris-Poultney has created the quintessential boy’s bedroom in blue.

Real birch trees are set into the winter woods scenes painted on the walls leading to the stage.

When James enters the world of the wolves, projections turn his everyday Manitoba bedroom into exotic, winter woods and Byzantine’s eyes glow yellow.

It’s possible that Ron Pederson could carry this play alone on a bare stage.

He totally inhabits the character in a highly physical, intense and unflagging performance. A lot of the comedy lies in the actor and character’s mimicry of voices and other sound effects in his rapid-fire, excited storytelling.

Extinction Song previewed to a standing ovation on Sunday November 15^th and we can’t wait for opening night on Tuesday the 17^th.  Opening night is sold out but there are still tickets available for most shows in the run.  The run is shorter than past productions and seating at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is limited, so we hope you’ll book your tickets early.

See the Chronicle Herald preview at http://thechronicleherald.ca/ArtsLife/1152625.html

Eastern Front Theatre kicks off its 17^th Season with the Atlantic Canadian Premiere of Extinction Song, written and directed by Ron Jenkins.  Winner of two Edmonton Sterling Awards for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Production, the play features a tour-de-force, Sterling Award nominated performance by Edmonton actor Ron Pederson.

Over fifty submissions were received as of the November 1^st deadline for Eastern Front’s signature SuperNova Theatre Festival.  Artistic Producer Scott Burke is sifting through the applications and considering shows seen during a year of travels to other festivals in order to bring Halifax an exceptional line-up of innovative contemporary theatre. 

We’ve previously announced that Charles Ross will be bringing his One Man Lord of the Rings show to SuperNova 2010.  Fans of last year’s One Man Star Wars Trilogy won’t want to miss this equally thrilling show.

Stay tuned for more SuperNova programming announcements in the new year!

After a fun night of trivia, beer and socializing, a new team has been named champion of Reach for the Tap!  Last April’s inaugural event was won by “The Parking Spots” who were unable to return this time to defend their title.  However, after much competition and lots of laughter, the November winner was “The Delinquents”.  Congrats!  The fundraiser, held Friday November 6th at the Halifax Club was a great success and we thank everyone who came out and made it such a great night.  Special kudos to Cheryl Simon, Quiz Master and the Eastern Front Board of Directors for all of their efforts.   Many thanks to Garrison Brewery for their support of the event.  Get ready to take on “The Delinquents” on Friday March 26, 2010 to claim the illustrious trophy as your own!

We’re just thrilled that Eastern Front Theatre co-founder, Mary Vingoe, was awarded the Portia White Prize on October 24th, 2009. Mary has made an extraordinary contribution to theatre in HRM, Nova Scotia and Canada. We look forward to what is still to come!

“Eastern Front is always looking for meaningful community outreach opportunities that tie into the thematic content of our productions,” said Burke, “In Extinction Song, a seven-year-old boy takes the audience on a vivid journey into his imagination as he deals with a difficult home environment.  The incredible service provided by Kids Help Phone is a perfect match for this play.

There are a number of student matinees scheduled during the run of Extinction Song featuring a talk back session with Kids Help Phone representatives.  As well, David Zinck, Head of Fine Arts at Dartmouth High School is organizing a visual arts response to the play, encouraging his students to create and exhibit student artwork relating to the theme of alcoholism and its affects on youth.  The presentation of the play at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is prompting us to encourage a visual arts response to the work.

 About Kids Help Phone  

 This year marks Kids Help Phone’s 20^th Anniversary. For the past two decades, Kids Help Phone has been at the forefront in providing help and hope through its phone and web counselling services, earning the respect and trust of kids across Canada. When young people feel like there’s nowhere to turn, when parents, schools and social services are unavailable, closed, backlogged or simply not accessible for any reason, Kids Help Phone is there. Young people know that when they reach out to Kids Help Phone, any time of the day or night, they’ll be connected with a professional counsellor who can provide immediate, kid-friendly insight, help and direction on a wide variety of concerns that are important to them.

 Last year, Kids Help Phone counsellors connected with kids in almost 3,000 Canadian communities more than 2.2 million times. In Atlantic Canada alone, Kids Help Phone helped kids in need from 435 communities, 345,671 times on the phone and online in 2008. By continuing to reach out to kids in meaningful and innovative ways, Kids Help Phone will remain a trusted part of kids’ lives for many years to come.

On September 30th, October 1 and 2, writer David Overton, composer Zachary Florence, and director/dramaturg Scott Burke met in Halifax to continue work on The Passion of Adèle H, first commissioned by Eastern Front Theatre in March of 2008.  This latest round of development follows up on the results of a two week workshop at the Charlottetown Festival in September of 2008.

The Background to a Magnificent Obsession

In 1863 Adèle Hugo, the youngest daughter of the great French poet and patriot Victor Hugo, ran away from her home on the Isle of Guernsey to follow a young English officer, a Lieutenant Pinson, to his new post in Halifax.

The young, inexperienced Adèle fell deeply in love with Pinson and most likely became his mistress for a short time on Guernsey.  She wanted desperately to marry him, though her father disapproved.  Although Pinson was probably not a bad sort, no worse than most, he wasn’t very serious.  The fact that his affection waned is a circumstance that Adèle was ill equipped to understand or accept.

Well known to the Halifax theatre community, David Overton has enjoyed a lengthy career as a playwright, director and educator.

Zachary Florence recently trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in the Postgraduate Directors Course.  He is a past Associate Playwright at CanStage, and a brilliant composer.

The newest draft of The Passion of Adèle H will receive a development workshop in 2010.

God’s Middle Name has been named one of five finalists for  the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Award for the second year running.  The play was originally produced by In Good Company and features the work of many Eastern Front Theatre artists.  God’s Middle Name received its World Premiere at the 2006 SuperNova Theatre Festival.

Many thanks to all of In Good Company’s supporters, and Nominator, Claudia Buckley.

For more information visit www.nsmasterworks.ca

Read about it in the Chronicle Herald at

http://thechronicleherald.ca/ArtsLife/1144363.html

Photos:  Jennifer Overton & Réjean Cournoyer 

Photo Credit:  Denyse Karn