Tintamarre, Mount Allison University’s award-winning bilingual theatre troupe, has created what director-author Alex Fancy calls “a dramatic comedy for 2021.” MURMUReS will be staged remotely March 18th, 19th and 20th at 7:30 PM Atlantic Standard Time.
CHMA spoke with associate directors Noémie Chiasson and Caitlin O’Connor to find out a bit more about the play. You can hear that interview here:
Every year, the Tintamarre troupe brainstorms and workshops a potential theme and characters, creating a play from the collective imaginations of the group. This year, the theme sort of presented itself. MURMUReS takes a look at pandemic life through the eyes of a host of characters, all experiencing it in different ways.
“As per usual, it’s very character driven,” says O’Connor. “A lot of the characters are based off stories that stem from the actors’ lives or just things that we’ve noticed in the world this year.”
The play centres around a small family with an absent parent. “The mom decides to host weekly Zoom meetings, to develop a new community of her own and hopefully bring people together, to give people hope,” says O’Connor. “So a lot of the characters that you meet throughout the play are the characters that are coming in… They’re kind of a ragtag bunch.”
Chiasson says that as actors, the troupe has had to make adjustments and changes. “You have to be more conscious about where you’re looking,” says Chiasson, “because you can’t make eye contact with other actors online.”
There’s also the worry that you are still in frame, and the well-known concern over whether or not you are muted.
“These are all things that we wouldn’t have to worry about if we were in person on stage,” says Chiasson, “so it’s definitely been a little bit harder to make a connection. But I think, by sharing our stories and attending rehearsals every week, we’ve been able to keep the process the same as the past few years.”
Both Chiasson and O’Connor say the silver lining to an online play is the expanded audience reach. “This year, my grandma’s going to see the play for the first time,” says Chiasson. “So it’s really cool.”
Admission to MURMUReS is free, but tickets are required. You can order tickets here: http://bit.ly/MURMUReS, or email motyerfancytheatre@mta.ca for more information.