ARTS
Search Party’s Bunny upends traditional love story
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by Charlie Smith
hen veteran Vancouver director Mindy Parfitt chooses her next theatre production, her mind immediately goes to the visuals. The founder of the Search Party says that when she sees a script, certain images pop into her head. And so it went with her newest work, Bunny, a story by award-winning Ontario playwright Hannah Moscovitch about a highly literate woman who awakens to her own desires. “When I read this play, I felt like there was something really interesting we could do with this piece visually in the design element,” Parfitt tells the Straight over Zoom just before a rehearsal. ”And I think that’s obviously an important part of what the Search Party is bringing to the table: a really strong cohesion between design and text. And I felt like this piece really spoke to me in respect to that cohesion.” With set design by Amir Ofek, lighting by Itai Erdal, and costumes by Jessica Oostergo, the show reunites key parts of the team behind the Search Party’s first production, The Father, which won six Jessie Richardson Awards in 2020.
Alessandro Juliani provides Bunny’s sound design and composition. “When I start working with the set designer, especially with Amir, we usually start with an image,” Parfitt explains. “We’ll have a conversation. Then he’ll usually bring forward an image that he feels resonates with what we’ve been talking about.” In the case of Bunny, it began with a very still lake in the morning, with a little mist and a dock. To Parfitt, it was very evocative of what Bunny was truly about, conveying a sense of expansiveness, reflection, and space. In the play, lead character Sorrel, played by Emma Slipp, contemplates how her life has unfolded. “So when she reflects back, we find her in many different locations,” Parfitt reveals. “So we wanted to create a space that allowed for and was adaptable to that.” Parfitt then starts snapping her fingers as she points out that Bunny has a certain rhythm—these transitions had to be made fairly quickly. “That determines what you can and cannot do,” she adds. see next page
Emma Slipp (above) says that even though her title character has many vulnerable and intimate moments in Bunny, Hannah Moscovitch’s script is also exceedingly funny. Photo by Emily Cooper.
NOW ON VIEW | BOOK TICKETS AT VANARTGALLERY.BC.CA With Generous Support by:
Supporting Sponsor:
Jane Irwin and Ross Hill The Poseley Family Rick Erickson and Donna Partridge
AI Y Youth Program ms Sponsor:
Generously y supported by:
The Dr. Michael S Smith Science Fair Endo owment
The S.M. Blair Family
Media Partners:
The Imitation Game: Visual Culture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery y and curated by Bruc uce e Gren Grenvill ville e, Senio eniorr Cur Curator ator and Gle Glenn nn En Entis, Gue Guest st C Cur urator ator Image: Scott Eaton, Entangled II, 2019, 4k video (still), Courtesy of the Artist
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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
MARCH 10 – 17 / 2022
