Adhere and Deny presents:
“The Bedbug”
after VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY
For Robert Breer,
1926 – 2011
“Before I speak, I have something important to say.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”
Groucho Marx
November 3 – 12 8 pm
admission $10.00
315-70 ALBERT STREET
FEATURING
Carolyn Gray
Coral Maloney
Mia Van Leeuwen
Director/Designer Grant Guy
Video Montage jaymez
Poster and Postcard design Susan Chafe
Apprentice Director Leigh Anne Parry
Documentation Leif Norman
For reservations call 774-6334
Adhere And Deny gratefully acknowledges the support of the Winnipeg Arts Council and the Manitoba Arts Council.
Can there ever be a more appropriately named play to be performed in Winnipeg than THE BEDBUG? A big hit with the bedbug set. In its adaptation of Mayakovsky’s satire of 1929 Soviet bureaucracy and the abandonment of the Revolution to NEP men and Five-Year Plans, Adhere And Deny moves THE BEDBUG to somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere in 1990s, when free enterprise was hanging on by a thread against the mighty assault of hyper-capitalism, and the year 2042 when greed is good, hyper capitalism has become the Logos, mandatory product branding, and the victory of clinical hygiene is final.
Our anti-hero, Bobby Markowski, aspires to overcome his working-class roots and become a star in the New Economic Order. His guide to the actualization of his dream is Brad Everest, a self-realization guru and social engineer. Markowski’s first major act to achieve his goal is to marry the daughter of a deceased accountant. But Markowski disappears when a fire consumes his wedding hall and everyone in it.
Fifty years later Markowski’s body is found frozen intact in a block of ice. He is brought back to life by the Institute of Human Resurrection. Into this advanced capitalist culture he brings with him a bedbug. Is there room for a man and a bedbug from the past in this new world?
from the Adhere and Deny website:
ADHERE + DENY | HISTORY
Adhere And Deny explores the metaphysical and the pataphysical.
Adhere And Deny, originally called SHARED STAGE, was incorporated in 1984. SHARED STAGE began as a cooperative project of Agazzis Theatre, the Manitoba Association of Playwrights and the Winnipeg Film Group as a venue to exhibit a mixed program of theatre, performance, poetry and prose readings, and film, video and audio exhibition. Often the submission process was to grab the curiosity of the artistic director.
SHARED STAGE also gave birth to the DADA DUMB.
Significant work produced by SHARED STAGE were:
OMERTA, R&R, and FIRST AID by John Gurdebeke,
C TO THE THIRD POWER and THE SHADOW PLAY by Alex Poruchnyk,
DUETS FOR SCHIZOPHRENICS by Chris Johnson.
Some of the artists who presented at SHARED STAGE were Doug Melnyk, Alethea Lahofer, Vern Hume, Harry Rintoul, Per Brask, Gilles Hebert, Carol Pickering, Bruce McManus, Al Rushton, Liz Jarvis, Tannis Kyle, Hope Peterson and Ken Gregory.
SHARED STAGE was the instigator and prime partner in the International Intermediate Performance Festival of 1987. Artists who performed at the festival were Jeff Gillman, Connie Beckley, Marcella Bienvenue, Carolee Schneeman, John Gurdebeke, Tina Keane, Elizabeth Chitty, David Brown and Betina, Doug Melnyk and Alethea Lahofer.
SHARED STAGE coordinated and hosted the 1987 Plains Canada Film And Video Conference and exhibition.
In 1987 SHARED STAGE was renamed Adhere And Deny which created and/or oversaw a number of projects. A few of these projects wereNIGHTCLUB (with Ace Art), LIGHT/LIGHT (with Video Pool) and GROUND ZERO (with Ace Art) that included Rita McKeough, Sharon Alward and Tanya Mars.
During the early 1990s Adhere And Deny produced THE INVISIBLE THEATRE PROJECT.
In 1998 Adhere And Deny accepted an annual grant from the Manitoba Arts Council to present seasons of object/puppet based theatre. The texts were from the classical canon such as PROMETHEUS BOUND, BLOOD WEDDING, WOYZECK, and ANTIGONE. The other works were fragmentary theatre pieces created by the artistic director of Adhere And Deny such as KLEIST:FRAGMENTS, KATARSIS, FOUND AND LOST,MEDEA ETUDE, CANTICLE and THREE SISTERS: A STILL LIFE.
In 2004 Adhere And Deny began to quietly reinstate media into its productions: CANTICLE and MEDEA ETUDE. In MEDEA ETUDE Adhere And Deny contracted two young performance/video artists to perform. The instigation for the reintroduction was a basic interest in animation. Animation was introduced into PARADISE LOST and continues on into THE CIRCUS OF OBJECTS has animation been properly introduced in Adhere And Deny’s production.
In the 2005 productions, MOZART AND SALIERI and HAIKU, the new initiative with media and the puppet continued with the engagements of Angela Somerset, Tom Elliott and Collin Zipp to collaborate in MOZART AND SALIERI and Mike Germain and Alex Poruchnyk to collaborate inHAIKU. Productions since 2005 included ELEGY FOR KHLEBNIKOV, THE SWAN SONG, VIA CRUCIS, SONG FOR SIMON, PARADISE LOST , THE TELEPHONE, THE PRAMPOLINI ACTION, THE PROUDHON ACTION, THE GRAND INQUISITOR, and THE CIRCUS OF OBJECTS EDITIONONE thru THREE. Adhere And Deny throughout 2011 will present workshop variations on THE CIRCUS OF OBJECTS with the full version of THE CIRCUS OF OBJECTS scheduled for the Fall of 2012. Wish us luck. Adhere And Deny will need it.
Grant Guy
Grant Guy, founder and artistic director of Adhere And Deny, has worked professionally in the arts since his graduation from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1973. He is a director, designer, playwright, curator and arts programmer/curator, video producer, performance artist and writer. The theatre companies Guy has worked for include the Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Projects Manitoba, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Alberta Theatre Projects, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Chamber Opera West, Magnus Theatre, Shakespeare In The Ruins, Theatre Calgary, the Performing Theatre Company, Stratford Festival Theatre and Manitoba Theatre Workshop. Guy’s performances and videos have been exhibited at Ace Art Gallery, Plug In Gallery, Neutral Ground, Second Story Gallery, A.K.A. Gallery, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Gallery 1.1.1., Centre D’Art, Ed Video, Collective Gallery, Sea Gate Gallery, Saw Gallery and Artcite Gallery. Guy has also programmed or produced curatorial projects such as LIGHT/LIGHT, FOR A RADIO, VAN TV, and THE INSTALLATION PROJECTS for Video Pool, GROUND ZERO and NIGHTCLUB for Ace Art, DOK TRINAIRE’S TRAVELING SHOWS for Main/Access Gallery, and was the programmer and executive director for the 1986 International Intermedia Performance Festival.
Manitoba Arts Councils Arts Award of Distinction 2004.