Theatre reviews: Body autonomy and a queer-love rock-pop concert, as rEvolver fest swings into motion
SEETHERED joins four women in a hospital waiting room, while Passenger Seat cranks up the fog machines
Seethered
Upintheair Theatre presents the rEvolver Festival to June 5
OPENING WEEK at the rEvolver Festival, back live after two years of digital events, starts off bold with SEETHERED and Passenger Seat at The Cultch’s Historic Theatre. Both intimate productions illustrate the 2022 fest’s balance between gritty societal issues and taboos with the warmth of connection.
SEETHERED is a raw confrontation on body autonomy in the lives of cisgender women, exploring themes that are currently at the foreground of the media, such as abortion and the influence of the Church over bodily rights.
In SEETHERED, we follow four women, played by Sarah Cantuba, Emma Newton, Arielle Permack, and Rahat Saini, as they await reproductive medical procedures in a hospital waiting room. Baring their souls as they dress themselves in medical gowns, the women reveal the traumas and the trials that have led them to undergo their chosen medical procedure, including late-trimester abortion and sterilization. The acting in this show is phenomenal, at one point bringing tears to Cantuba's eyes as her character gives a monologue about reclaiming the ownership over her body that she has for so long been denied.
With humour as sharp as a knife, this play by Zöe Wessler pulls back a hospital curtain to bare the bloody truth about reproductive rights today. The content of SEETHERED may be disturbing for some but explores relevant themes that too often remain behind closed doors.
Passenger Seat
Passenger Seat takes on a completely different tone, exploring young queer love in a charming musical performance.
This rock-pop concert by musicians Arthi Chandra, Howard Dai, Isabella Halladay, Hannah Meyers, Montserrat Videla, and Thule van den Dam is about the whimsy of first loves, told from the perspective of a 17-year-old girl. With quirky theatrics and a playful tone, Passenger Seat tells the story of two young girls who are discovering their queerness—one that is familiar and precious to many queer folks, about more-than-friendships and the confused nature of young love. The performance is completed by the use of fog machines, flashing lights, and laser beams—the dramatic touch every epic rock-pop opera needs.
Although it centres on a common experience, Passenger Seat gives melody and voice to a love story that is not often represented by the media: the dynamic of romantic love between two young girls who have yet to realize their queer indentity. This buzzed-about performance makes the audience’s heart skip a beat, as if falling in love for the first time.
With these shows, rEvolver shines a light on some of the most important themes of the current age—on connection and resistance, of the desire for community and the need for collective action. With its focus on emerging artists, it highlights the changing stage, but also the changing human experience.
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