Rae Spoon, photo by JJ Levine
My Rhubarb Saturday, by Ashley Botting
The phallus-like unicorn horn emerging from the questionably-gendered woman on the cover of the brochure was enough to convince me that the Rhubarb Festival might be worth checking out. Last Saturday night, I attended “Week 2” shows at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in downtown Toronto. Each week features all new performances.
All the Rhubarb shows are short. Like 30 minutes. So, the festival feels like a tapas of presentations. There are two spaces, so audiences have to choose which show to see. I figured I’d really roll the dice and choose solely based on play titles.
The first show, Hunting!, was a song and story solo piece by transgendered singer/songwriter Rae Spoon. Rae wove his songs through personal stories about his life growing up in Alberta as a transgendered person in an uber-Christian family. On two occasions, his songs were supported by some animation on a screen behind him, created by Jessica McCormack. The stories were compelling, mostly due to their content, but the animation fell short of supporting the show in the way it was intended. But Rae is an intriguing performer, and I love to spend another evening just listening to him sing his stories.
Insurgency, the second show of the evening, was unexpectedly intriguing. Five teenaged actors delivered personal monologues about what they would fight for. The pre-recorded images of the same kids setting up camp under the Gardner expressway that played in the background left me slightly confused, but the actors themselves were charming, honest, and brave. It was a pleasant reminder that Generation Z, as they have been called, has the capacity to think beyond themselves and the things they own.
I had a choice between two 9 PM performances, and I opted for Headbangers. Four performers in the fictitious band “Cracked Nipple” were essentially singing the praises of the lost headbanging movement.
I thought I’d only see gay people talking about the experience of being gay, but I saw much more at The Rhubarb Festival. The great thing about it is that the shows are short enough to leave you wanting more, or make you glad to leave. Either way, it’s a unique theatrical experience, and worth, in the very least, a little taste.
The third and final week of The Rhubarb festival runs Feb 24-28 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street, Toronto.
