Nextfest Anthology II: Plays from the Syndrude Next Generation Arts Festival

Ian C. Nelson, Librarian Emeritus, former Assistant Director of
Libraries (University of Saskatchewan) and dramaturge (Festival de la
Dramaturgie des Prairies).

The selection of plays in this second anthology (the first having been
published in 2000 also by NeWest), covers what the organizers of the
Syncrude Next Generation Arts Festival call “the unruly years,”
(2001–2005). Dedicated to young emerging artists, the variously
spelled nextfest is a prestigious annual celebration of Canada’s
avant-garde exposed to the Edmonton public in a festival that has
broadened in both size and in disciplinary scope over the years. This
anthology, however, concentrates on theatre pieces chosen for the
creative variety of their styles and themes.

“Métis Mutt” is an oft-produced tour-de-force monologue by Sheldon
Elter that is difficult to imagine being performed by anyone other than
the subject/writer/performer himself. “Code Word: Time” by Leah
Simone Bowen joins real horror with live-feed “reality” in a closely
scripted multimedia four-hander. “Beneath the Deep Blue Sky” is
described as a hyperlink play where the “flow of ideas is guided more
by Boolean operators … than by natural human dialogue”; in it author
Rob Bartel’s satire of the jargon of Rogerian psychotherapy is
brilliant. “Grumple-stocks” is a piece written in close
collaboration by three authors (Kevin Jesuino, Trish Lorenz, Jon
Stewart), who also performed in its astounding premiere where people
were treated to the spectacle of highly committed actors impersonating a
cast of rebellious puppets cut loose from their master (like Ionesco
bred with Alfred Jarry and rising to a crescendo of guignolesque
mayhem). Finally “Citrus” by Janis Craft lucidly explores
dangerously intimate psychological entanglements involving a honeymoon
couple and the twin sister of the groom. Festival director Steve Pirot
provides a pertinent introduction explaining the genesis and development
of each play with an accompanying production history and a
black-and-white picture. Brief biographies of the writers, of Pirot, and
of festival producer Bradley Moss complete the volume.

All of the works in this anthology are fraught with captivating
dramatic conflict and are of a quality that makes it hard to believe the
disclaimer that they “are not a ‘best of Nextfest 2001–2005,’”
for they clearly are superior plays worthy of our attention.