BAM Presents U.S. Premiere of Canadian Stage's HELEN LAWRENCE This Week
By: BWW News Desk
BAM presents the US premiere of Canadian Stage's multimedia work of theater and film, HELEN LAWRENCE.
Inspired by post-war film noir, HELEN LAWRENCE intertwines theater, visual art, live-action film, and computer-generated simulations in a beautifully crafted, suspense-filled tale from award-winning visual artist Stan Douglas and acclaimed screenwriter Chris Haddock (Da Vinci's Inquest, CBC). Femme fatale HELEN LAWRENCE arrives from Los Angeles in seedy, post-World War II Vancouver seeking revenge for the murder of her husband. She is quickly caught up in a twisted plot of corrupt racist cops, an equally corrupt mayor, and degenerate local residents, which ultimately ends in murder.
This pioneering stage production features a cast of 12 who operate cameras, filming their performances against a blue screen-enclosed stage. Their images are simultaneously integrated into computer-generated 3D recreations of urban Vancouver circa 1948-the prodigiously detailed work of Stan Douglas' studio. The audience experience is at once a 3D film, projected onto a scrim in front of the live action, and a cinematic thriller unfolding live on stage. The production received its world premiere on March 19, 2014 in Vancouver and toured to the Munich Kammerspiele (Germany), Edinburgh International Festival, and back to Canada for a run at Canadian Stage's Bluma Appel Theatre (Toronto).Watch a trailer below!
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