Rhubarb roundup

Fay Slift and the Three Bears

Ladybear Extraordinaire Fay Slift is thrilled to be part of the Rhubarb Festival. At a meeting with this year’s performers, the other attendees made a strong impression. “Sitting in that environment full of people who I respect as creative beings, who live their lives and generate whatever income they have through their art, was humbling.” Fay Slift and the Three Bears is “a modern take on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. There are these three bears who live in a house, and it’s actually not a house; it’s a basement apartment. They are baking pot brownies, and I’ve got this ravenous craving, and I make my way through the city to break into their apartment and eat it,” Slift laughs. The story culminates in a kind of create-your-own-adventure ending. “We really want the audience to laugh and enjoy themselves and walk out with smiles on their faces — sort of thinking: what the fuck just happened?”  

Wed, Feb 20–Sun, Feb 24, Buddies in Bad Times, 12 Alexander St

Insert Monologue Re: My Youth, Drugs & SSRIs, HIV/AIDS, Angels in America, That Time Tilda Swinton Hugged Me 

“It’s a performance about disclosure, and of disclosure,” says Vincent Chevalier. Since testing positive for HIV, Chevalier has made some very public disclosures. This includes being on the cover of Xtra in 2006, when he was 21, with a picture of his face, hands outstretched, and the title “I Am AIDS.” “With disclosure it’s always contextual, it’s always up in the air, and ultimately it’s always destabilizing,” he says. The show includes artifacts from his disclosures in various mediums, and there will be readings, projections, reenactments and a game of Dare. “This performance is about all the ways in which I disclosed through media but doing it all in one place, with other people in the room,” Chevalier says. He emphasizes that “even though there are heavy moments, it’s also storytelling with a variety of different emotions involved.” 

Wed, Feb 20–Sun, Feb 24, Buddies in Bad Times, 12 Alexander St

Vigil(ance)

“Rhubarb is a pretty great incubator for the wildest and most wonderful sorts of new ideas, new artists, new modes,” says Jordan Tannahill, who is joining forces with his Videofag partner, William Christopher Ellis, for the festival. Their project, Vigil(ance), started with a “conversation about where in the city do we feel unsafe? Or unwelcome? I approached that as a queer male and immediately thought of locations, intersections and bars where things had been muttered or I’d been outright verbally bashed.”

The evening begins at Videofag, with discussion about places where participants feel unwelcome. “Then a route is decided, and we visit several sites and sort of hold vigil and occupy them for the people who contributed the anecdotes that brought us there,” Tannahill says. The hope is that through these interventions the locations can be, in some sense, reclaimed. 

Wed, Feb 27–Sun, March 3, Videofag, 187 Augusta Ave

Disco Hospital

Andrew Zealley describes Disco Hospital as “an inter-disciplinary research project investigating sound and non-Western healing practices.”

Zealley has worked with sound for several years, beginning with a project called Nature: This Is a Recording, a collaboration with artist Robert Flack that is on display in the National Gallery of Canada. 

Zealley will conduct a limited number of one-on-one sessions, in which he will expose people to ritualistic touch and sonic therapy. 

Fri, Feb 22–Sun, Feb 24, The 519 Community Centre, 519 Church St

buddiesinbadtimes.com