photo from AfterImage adapted from Michael Crummey : Tina Rasmussen

It’s the World Premiere of St. John’s hot theatre group Artistic Fraud’s performance entitled AfterImage. Adapted from a story by author Michael Crummey, it will be performed as part of Harbourfront’s World Stage.

The story is set in the Newfoundland mining town of Buchans and revolves around a family created and devastated by an accidental electrocution and unexpected adoption. And make no bones about it, it promises to be a deLIGHTful, charged and illuminating show.

Ok, sorry for the puns – but assistant director Michael Worthman has told me he’s been busy rigging up the actors with wires so that a current flows through them when they touch the floor, allowing them to light up on stage. He’s also told me he spends even more time ensuring them that it’s all perfectly safe.

The revolutionary set, developed and designed specifically for AfterImage, is composed of overhead wires charged with positive DC current and a copper sheet floor charged with negative DC current which illuminate halogen lights when actors connect the two currents.

Why? To highlight the key thematic elements of conductivity in electricity and connectivity in families, of course.

Composer Jonathan Monro has also designed a new instrument for the production that utilizes
guitar wire integrated with the live DC current wires running the width of the stage. What results is an “intricately developed performance that creates a complex, or kaleidoscopic, effect – termed by Artistic Fraud as Kaleidography.”

So for you who will be in Toronto April 16-26, be sure not to miss it. And those of us who won’t be will just have to wait for it to play here.

Adapted by Robert Chafe and directed by Jillian Keiley

More details
Artistic Fraud (Newfoundland) – AfterImage
Part of Fresh Ground new works
April 16-18 and April 21-25, 8:00 p.m.; April 26, 2:00 p.m.
Enwave Theatre, 231 Queens Quay West
Tickets: $30, Box office and info: 416-973-4000 or www.harbourfrontcentre.com