Arkady Spivak, the wildly imaginative spit-fire who is the Artistic Producer of Talk Is Free Theatre, has a wild idea. He has invited theatre-goers to pay to go on a three day trip called “The Curious Voyage.” There are several of these mainly three day trips over the course of a few weeks. The participants don’t know each other or who is on their trip.
Day one starts in Barrie, Ontario (a city one hour north of Toronto) where the participants will enter ‘the narrative” and be guided to parts of Barrie to engage in the experience. They spend the night in a hotel.
Day two starts at the crack of dawn where the participants will be taken to Pearson Airport in Toronto to take the day flight to London, England. We land at 9 pm. After customs (where presumably we can’t tell the customs person anything about the purpose of the trip because it’s a secret) we get our stuff and are taken to a hotel in central London. I know the name of it, but can’t tell you.
Day three we are taken on a walking tour of various places in London again in the spirit of the narrative to gather information or clues about the point of the narrative. At a certain time on that day we will be lead to a site specific place in London to see a musical (don’t know the name of it as yet) that I am told is very familiar, performed by a group of Canadian and British actors engaged especially for this voyage. After that there might be some kind of festivities.
Day four, most of the folks fly home. I will stay a few more days to see more theatre.
We are given a guide to ask any questions we might have. I know the name of mine but can’t tell you in case his mother doesn’t know the shady goings on he is up to. My guide has told us to dress very warmly seeming to put the fear of God or cold into us regarding the weather in Barrie and London, Eng. I’ve been to both places and the weather is seasonal, so we are told to dress in layers.
I am told some people just want to have the one day to tour London and see the musical.
I’m doing the whole whack.
Arkady got the idea for this wild adventure when he dreamed up a site-specific production of The Music Man that took place at various locations in Barrie. We got to the locations by chartered bus and by walking. Always thinking bigger, Arkady now has added a component where we fly to a different continent to see a musical. (I think it’s something in the water he drinks….)
I will post on each days adventure being as vague as possible. I can’t write about the musical until the final trip completes its Curious Voyage, around Nov. 11.
My guide says I might have to wear a costume in Barrie (this being close to Halloween), and to bring something that would be dressy as a costume. I wonder if socks with Shakespeare’s face on them will suffice. Going to pack now. More soon, later.