Vancouver theatre — + Conspiracy Now Entries

Foreign Radical is a game so of course competition drives the piece. The heart of it, however, is something far more complex: the collective story of each audience that gathers to play.

Each show is radically different depending on who shows up. They leave the theatre (in this case, shipping containers) knowing each other quite intimately — for people who just met an hour before. They have profiled each other, spied on each other, debated in teams, raced each other to the finish line and shared some empathy or disdain.

Foreign Radical: Are You Game?

Foreign Radical is not a video game, board, or schoolyard sport. It’s a game that happens in a radical theatrical environment where your feet are your joystick and your thoughts and motivations are the buttons to take action. You can be in the driver’s seat of political activism, or take the nearest exit off the infobahn as you consider the repercussions of your public cries for freedom.

Foreign Radical: Designing the Game

If you attended Theatre Conspiracy’s previous documentary-style theatre show, Extraction, you might recall that the audience was asked a similar series of content-related survey questions throughout the performance. This time we’re taking questions into new territory through audience inclusion and significant consequences — Foreign Radical will concurrently operate as both a documentary theatre piece and an immersive game. As audience members, you are no longer observing, you are the players of the game.

Extraction on Indiegogo

Theatre Conspiracy is thrilled to launch an Indiegogo campaign for Extraction.

Extraction is Conspiracy’s most ambitious production to date.

An exciting and challenging project, Extraction has thus far involved research in Beijing and Fort McMurray, and working with an international cast and talented local theatre makers. We mounted a work-in-progress presentation in July at Your Kontinent: Richmond International Film & New Media Festival, and now we're working towards the premiere at The Cultch in March 2013.

Conspiracy gets obstructed!

If you have been following Progress Lab's Obstructions series, you've had a taste of the companies in Progress Lab at their craftiest. Over a one-year period, a group of Vancouver theatre companies challenge each other to create work built around custom-designed limitations. The result is unlike anything you’ve seen from that company before.

On July 28, following a performance of Radix's farcical feast in carrot kingdom at PL1422, Tim Carlson took the hotseat and received Theatre Conspiracy’s obstructions with measured calm.

Conspiracy must now devise a theatre piece that meets the following criteria:

Obstructions, UncategorizedtcSpyJuly 30, 2012Lars Von Trier, Obstructions, PL1422, Progress Lab, Radix, Tim Carlson, Vancouver theatreComment

Ethical theatre / dirty theatre

How much tar sand does it take to make contemporary theatre? If we don’t use too much tar sand can we call it ethical theatre? Or is it just dirty theatre no matter how you slice it?

These are a few questions being considered as Theatre Conspiracy begins creative sessions for Extraction after two years of research and planning. Our cast and team of theatre artists are in residence at The Cultch in Vancouver for the next few weeks to experiment before a work-in-progress presentation at Your Kontinent: Richmond International Film & Media Arts Festival on July 21.

ExtractiontcSpyJuly 6, 2012Alberta oil, Beijing, dirty oil, ethical oil, Extraction, oil sands, tar sands, Vancouver, Vancouver theatre, Your KontinentComment