Falling In Time (Screaming Weenie Productions) #Theatre

As you may have noticed, I’ve made an intentional effort to provide more coverage to the queer arts, and I’m delighted that Screaming Weenie Productions, Western Canada’s professional queer theatre company, is presenting this Saturday the world premiere of Falling in Time, a pretty gutsy and strong play by award-winning, Vancouver-based dramatist C. E. Gatchalian.

Falling in Time is an epic exploration of armed conflict, savage masculinity, flagrant sexuality, unqualified forgiveness and unexpected love. Set in Vancouver in 1994, the year of the death of
North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung, the play criss-crosses two hemispheres and spans more than forty years. Through all this, four distinctly different lives miraculously intertwine. Steve is an aging, outrageous, twisted, bisexual Korean war vet who embodies, in his verbal and sexual brazenness, the psychotic, sadistic tendencies of Western imperialism that polite society has too often tried to sweep from view.

Jamie is an aloof, repressed ESL teacher haunted by a troubled childhood. Chang Hyun is a young Korean ESL student brimming with anti-Western sentiment and fresh off a traumatic experience in the Korean military. In the middle of it all is Eun Ha, a Korean woman who lives through the Korean War and, against all odds, finds the will to survive.

The play is a brutally honest depiction of war, rape, racism and animal sexuality, but brings these issues to the stage in a non-linear way and with great integrity. One of the most uncompromising and controversial Canadian plays in recent memory, Falling in Time asks, why do men fear the “feminine”? And how do we find the power to let go?

This play is brought by Screaming Weenie (Clean Sheets, Belly, Lounge) teaming up with associate producers The Vancouver Playhouse (Death of A Salesman, This), and Meta.for Theatre (Broken, Bent). From my reading of the summary, Gatchalian’s work will yield an emotionally-raw and intense play. Probably not for the faint of heart, but a much needed examination of relevant themes.

Falling in Time is written by C. E. Gatchalian and directed by Seán Cummings with set and lighting design is by Itai Erdal. The cast includes 4-time Jessie Award winner Allan Morgan productions. Screaming Weenie Productions (whom you can reach by phone at 778.840.7132) (Steve), Jessie Award nominee Manami Hara (Eun Ha), Kevin Kraussler (Jamie) and Nelson Wong (Chang Hyun).

Falling in Time is made possible by the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, the Granville Island Cultural Society, CMHC, the Hamber Foundation, and the City of Vancouver’s 125th Anniversary Grants Program and the participation of the Government of Canada.

WHEN: 04 – 12 November 2011
WHERE: Performance Works, Vancouver
HOW MUCH: Tickets $20
PERFORMANCES: Tue-Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm
$10 Preview & Sunday Matinee

You can purchase tickets online through Brown Paper Tickets.

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