April 24, 25 | 8 & 10 pm | $10
Geordie’s 4001 Space | 4001 Berri
Box office
carneycollective@gmail.com
514 933-4736
There are sounds in the darkness. The drip of water in a pipe. The creak of a stair. A far off and unseen train. In this basement, these sounds are James’ music and his audience is his best friend, a fish named Tawillager.
The story of Tawillager is the story of a young boy named James who we meet in an unknown time and space. He is not of this world, yet completely from this world. He is of a story untold, not talked about in the everyday. James is a boy who was abducted, stolen from his family and the world that he lived in. We meet James in a very dark place, a basement in which he has been held captive for several months. With little human contact, James struggles to cope. Broken down and battered by psychological, physical and sexual abuse, he is very damaged, but not broken.
Join Joseph Bembridge and the other members of the Carney Collective as they tell this dark and troubling story. It is a hard story to watch and perhaps a harder story to tell. It is a voyage of light and sound into the simple beauties and terrible pain of one lost child. It is eerie, powerful, disturbing but ultimately human.
Originally produced for the 2008 Concordia SIPA Festival, the creation of Tawillager drew on many outstanding resources including: the talents of actor Joseph Bembridge who used techniques from Ursula Neuerburg-Denzer’s Emotion Labs; original music and sound by Alexandra Draghici; brilliantly effective set by Stephanie Bokenfohr; and unique video art by Marc Beaulieu. In this latest incarnation, original sound and music have been created by well-known sound designer and engineer, Danielle Jakubiak.
“The play covers an immense amount of emotional territory in a very short period of time. The production is not gratuitous, it has great sensitivity and humanity, and is incredibly painful to see and hear.” - Kit Brennan, Montreal Playwright
Joseph Bembridge - Writer, performer & co-director
Joseph Bembridge is a Montreal-based theatre and dance artist. He is the founder and artistic director of the Carney Collective, which focuses on producing new theatrical works that explore current social issues and experimental mediums of presentation. Some of Joseph’s professional theatre credits include: Dance Animal Presents: Dance Animal, which received the Just for Laughs award at the 2009 Montreal Fringe Festival, and was performed at the 2010 Wildside Festival produced by Centaur Theatre; and 7 Stories directed by Olivier Perrias for Tableau D’Hôte, in which he was a cast member of the MECCA-nominated Best Ensemble.
Alexandra Draghici - Co-director and live sound
Alexandra is a theatre artist active in Montreal and Toronto. She is currently working on Witchcraft, directed by Patrick Leroux. She has had the good fortune to play Jocasta in Oedipus directed by Ursula Neuerburg-Denzer, Isadora in Titanica directed by Brendan Healy, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and Laura in the Glass Menagerie, both directed by Christopher Legacy. She has recently completed a short run of her one woman show Detritus – Pockets for Siamese at the Concordia SIPA Festival, for which she directed Nocturne by Ryan Hurl. She has spent the last two summers working with Jumblies Theatre at Mabelle Arts and is planning to return to the Mabelle Park, where ritual and art have a meeting place.
Danielle Jakubiak - Sound designer
Danielle Jakubiak is a sound engineer and designer from PEI. She received her Bachelors of Music from Mount Allison University, her Masters of Ethnomusicology from the University of Glasgow, and attended the National Theatre School in Montreal for Technical Production. Since then, she has toured the world as a sound engineer. Her favourite designs include Gravy Bath’s Oedipus Rex, and Porte Parole’s Import/Export. She is currently teaching theatre and music to children and working towards a Masters of Music Therapy at Concordia.
Marc Beaulieu - Video artist
Marc Beaulieu is a recent Concordia University graduate with a BFA Specialization in Computation Arts and holds a DEP in Cabinetmaking. Marc loves building – whether it be with solids, textiles or bits & pixels. His current focus is in the areas of altering, enhancing and recontextualising objects and ideas through electronics, lighting and video to create standalone or interactive responsive experiences.
Joseph Bembridge as James - 2008 Concordia SIPA Festival
Photos of James taken by his abductor
