Because Rose is a gay, she got interviewed by Xtra! Magazine. And today, we saw Serafin's brilliant preview write up for our show! Here's our excerpt. Love it. As we do.
Lesbian thespians & bears, oh my
Let's start with a story of bears - and we don't mean our jean-shorts wearing, leather-harnessed brethren. We're talking real, honest-to-goodness Yogi and Boo-Boo type bears.
It all started with an old black and white photo: A full-grown bear stands on its hind legs, towering over a man who is feeding it with a baby bottle. From this improbable spectacle grew two generations of imaginative family lore, spinning tales of bestials trysts, unlikely offspring and the mystery of two twins who may not be related - all detailed in Rosemary Rowe and Chris Gilpin's play 87% True: The Lies That Bind.
Ursula and Orson have been estranged for many years. Though close as children, the twins' divergent personalities and lifestyles have kept the two apart until their grandmother's death. The funeral is a sad occasion, but the siblings find some comfort in their reunion and seem to set aside their differences in anticipation of Granny's will reading.
Of course, it all goes to hell in a picnic basket. Turns out that Granny's been hiding a secret all these years: one of the twins was actually adopted, but the old bat couldn't remember which when she wrote the will.
To make matters worse, only the biological offspring can inherit the grandmother's estate, which leaves the distraught duo going through old photos, slides and documents to determine who gets all of Granny's goodies.
It's during this ancestral excavation that the differences between brother and sister begin to surface. Where Ursula is methodical and boring, Orson seems to embody the family sense of the unlikely and the fantastical.
The infamous bear-feeding photo sparks a vicious rivalry, with Ursula dismissing the scenario as an unlikely pet, and Orson maintaining that Grandma and the bear engaged in intimate relations, producing a fantastical lineage of ursine-monikered children.
"We actually created the play the same way that family stories seem to develop," says co-writer Rowe, a queer playwright and blogger based in Toronto. "There was a basic set of ideas to start with and then we just extrapolated."
Rowe crafted the story with longtime friend and fellow Edmontoner Gilpin; the two have been close friends since high school.
"Chris's family actually had a farm in Alberta with this pet bear, which is where we got the picture. It was his grandfather feeding the bear."
In fact, Gilpin's furry friend makes an actual (if macabre) appearance in 87% True - the bear's head is now struffed and will be mounted on the wall of the set.
87% True opens July 5 at 8:45 p.m. in the Factory Theatre Studio (125 Bathurst Street).
Slurpee count = 18
