Ottawa Fringe 2014. Moonlight after Midnight.

A magical performance by Martin Dockery and Vanessa Quesnelle which captures the essence of theatre, the essence of performativity , perhaps captured better than any other writing for the stage  I have ever seen. This text and the way it is produced shows us that theatre is a point in time, a moment in space that only exists because it is repeated but that has no substance. When the performance is over, the character, the world represented, is gone, like the comet that streaks across the sky in the show which becomes the model for Dockery’s vision of performance. Theatre is that kind of ephemeral art form where “characters” are liquid, unstable, based on nothing but the space they occupy on stage during the performance. time.  These figments of someone’s imagination, constantly adapt to whatever meaning one wants to give them and when the play is over, they no longer exist, except in the memory of the audience. Dockery has used the beautiful voice of Quesnelle and a situation that plays out in various ways as successive mise en abyme, a chance encounter that moves forward in time.  Each encounter uses the same references (we are in a room, we meet for the first time, there is party next door etc etc) but each time the meanings of those references change and those changes transform the relationship between the two figures.

This is not just a Rashomon style multiple versions of one story, because there is no narrator to ancre the stories. They just flow from themselves showing that nothing  is stable. Thus the play appears to repeat itself while the fluid meanings are constantly shifting, allowing it all to, arbitrarily, continue playing out various versions of the same situation, the sign of an an art form with no boundaries, no limits, no substance, just an appearance in a point of light in space, like the comet that draws the gaze of the male figure as it passes every ten years. And in spite of this, or because of this vision of theatre, Dockery has captured a most beautiful emotional atmosphere that links these two individuals where a long kiss produces a warmth and a strong emotion , apparently unmotivated but that touch us so deeply. The human quality of the actors cannot be erased.

It is a beautiful piece of theatre that has opened the possibility for an unending performance, unending transformations that drive the actors forward until they possibly could collapse. Actors are finite beings. They need rest, they need to eat. Characters need none of that. They just are…and then they are gone. Dockery is himself and Quesnelle is a magnificent stage presence who just lets it all flow around her in a most normal way.  Her beautiful singing voice fills the room with light, like the comet and we suddenly understand what theatre really is.

Plays in the Courthouse of Arts Court.

P.S. AT this show there was a big intimidating security guard by the door and people around me were nervously asking questions. Luckily, I happened to meet the American Ambassador to Canada, Bruce Heyman and his wife, waiting in line with the rest of us. He pointed out his shadow who is always there ready for action. I hope they all enjoyed the show. It was one of the special moments of the Fringe.

Moonlight after Midnight written and directed and performed by Martin Dockery

A Concrete Drops production

With Martin Dockery and Vanessa Quesnelle.