Fen

By Caryl Churchill

February 22 – March 5, 2005
Previews:  February 22nd and 23rd at 8pm
Opens:  February 24th at 8pm
Evening Performances:  February 25, 26 March 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5th at 8pm
Matinee:  Saturday March 5th at 2pm
Pre-Show Lecture:  Friday February 25th at 7pm

Director:  Yasmine Kandil (Graduate Student- Directing)
Set Designer:  Allan Stichbury (Faculty)
Costume Designer:  Carla Orosz (Graduate Student- Design)
Lighting Designer:  Tim Herron (Graduate Student- Education)
Musical Director:  Alison Greene (Guest Artist)
Sound Designer:  Kathleen Greenfield
Dialect Coach:  Ned Vukovic (Faculty)
Stage Manager:  Heather Rycraft
Assistant Set Designer:  Megan Newton
Assistant Dialect Coach:  Amanda Cardoso (Guest)
Faculty Supervisor (Directing):  Linda Hardy
Faculty Supervisor (Design):  Allan Stichbury

Featuring:  Aynsley Carson, Claire Charland, Anne-Marie de la Giroday, Kathlene McGuinness, Kate Richard, and David Ward

England’s Fen Country is the setting for this gripping work by Caryl Churchill, author of Top Girls and Cloud Nine.  In her inimitable rhythmic style, Churchill exposes the harsh struggles of women and landworkers and delves into their private lives and dreams.  Written in 1983, the Village Voice called Fen “a wonderful and strange play:  passionate, tense, and eloquent”.

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MEDIA REVIEWS

“With the help of vocal coach Ned Vukovic, they not only find a uniformity of sound that is distinct for the region, near Cambridge in the northwest, but feel confident enough to take it one step further, creating richly independent and unique characters, with enough variety of timbre and rhythm, age and class that—together with the help of director Kandil, gives rise to some distinctive character work (breathy excited preschoolers blowing out a birthday cake, creaking great aunts in their nineties).”

-Robert Mitchell (CBC Radio)

“Beneath the surface, all of Churchill’s characters are walking around on stilts and doing anything they can to rise above the crushing poverty that surrounds them.  Fen is funny, emotionally engaging and well worth a look.”

-Tom Birch (The Martlet)

“While Fen features some fine production design—notably yet another minimalist masterpiece of set design by in-house marvel Allan Stichbury,, some chillingly haunting lighting courtesy of Tim Herron, and a truly evocative sound design by Kathleen Greenfield and Alison Greene—the overall effectiveness of the generally strong cast is hampered by a collection of accents so thick they often occlude the lines.”

-John Threlfall (Monday Magazine)

“This is a fine production, boasting a superb set, strong direction and a spirited effort from a student cast. 
Thick British accents make this incarnation difficult to understand at times, although (thanks to dialect coach Ned Vukovic) the cadences ring true.  Overall, the cast of six is uniformly strong.
We actually believe these young actors are working class British soil-tillers, wizened old women and little girls  All told they play about 20 roles.”

-Adrian Chamberlain (Times Colonist)