“As a producer/designer/technician/administrator/activist it’s a big investment, but as an arts-goer and punter it’s extremely cost effective way to keep up with global live performance.”
WHO: Ian Garrett
WHAT: “Aionos – An African-Futurist mixed-reality production where Ancient Egypt meets Star Wars as you travel virtual worlds to help an Egyptian queen heal a broken love and navigate spacetime to recover an ancient technology. This unique hybrid theatrical experience in VR, streaming, and in-person will take you across time, space, and the metaverse in a collaboration between Toasterlab, Debbie Deer Productions, and Immersive actor/director/designer Ari Tarr. Aionos brings live and remote actors and audiences together for an unforgettable adventure in a companion piece to Debbie Deer’s Nefertiti: The One Who Comes.”
WHERE: ZOO Playground – Playground 2 (Venue 117)
WHEN: 13:05 (50 min)
MORE: Click Here!
Is this your first time to Edinburgh?
This is my 12th time to the Fringe! My first was in 2008 and then I was over consistently in different capacities until the 2020 festival was cancelled,. This is a return in that way. It’s addictive… I’ve been involved in hit shows like Counting Sheep in 2016, ambitious but okay shows like Transmission in 2017, and any number which struggled regardless of quality. I also co-ran the Fringe Sustainable Practice award from 2010 – 2017, and have been involved in the festival form that side. While a lot of my current interest is around questions about who gets to take part in the festival given how expensive and time consuming is, it’s still an important launching pad for so many things where you can really try anything and then get to see so much. As a producer/designer/technician/administrator/activist it’s a big investment, but as an arts-goer and punter it’s extremely cost effective way to keep up with global live performance.
What are the big things you’ve learned since 2022 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?
We took 2022 just to see what the return to the fringe would look like and didn’t try to bring work again. It was too risky as an international company to do that. But it gave us time to reflect on some of the core questions we had about how we work. We had started developing a concept around presenting a show with remote performers in 2019 after years of thinking about all the challenges of producing at the festival: it’s expensive sure, but it’s hard for folks with families and caring responsibilities to relocated for a month regardless of money. So many folks have other work obligations that this is difficult too, and it seemed like every festival some company canceled last minute due to visa issues and we were really starting to rethink our involvement with the carbon footprint of our work. So seeing the festival pick up on 2022 and noting even incremental change where digital remote work wasn’t a novelty but a necessity, and the Fringe being stronger with its position on values and commitment to carbon neutrality, and the work with council on housing, etc. We really wanted to bring something which started to think about those things from within a creative process through this Meta-show idea of hybrid performance.
Tell us about your show.
In addition the hybrid presentation, the show itself is a coming together of goals. One is just seeing if we are able to build the infrastructure to support having half our cast/crew back in Toronto. But we’ve also partnered with York University in Toronto to do rigorous research on this way of working.
The show is devised insofar as it’s inspired by work of XR performance maker Debbie Deer, and guided by performance training by XR actor Ari Tarr. Our company Toasterlab focuses on shows that blend XR technology with live performance, so we co-developed the concept and then started working with a diverse set of artists and partners this year. So in addition to these core artists and our professional contributors like Aisha Bentham and David Jansen (maybe only familiar to Canadians) there is credit to the IBPOC fellowship with Single Thread Theatre and their leading Performance XR work in Canada, lots of work with FlipsideXR which is a Canadian company building a VR performance platform, and with researchers and a handful of research assistants at York University. So, where I say devising is the process of developing the form and content in collaboration, that’s how this all came together. It’s sort of Toasterlab’s core approach, working iteratively to develop projects that balance narrative, technology, and performance design.
This will be the premiere of both this show and this way of working. It’s nothing if not ambitious and we know that can be a challenge.
What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?
What Can Indian Look Like at Greenside! On of our leads Shaharah Gaznabbi is also one of the two performers in that alternating anthology solo show. It’s also literally shortly after Aionos so they can make it over. It may not be technically ambitious, but previous iterations when it was just Gaz’s counterpart Natasha, have been great and it’s something that I think it really well suited for the fringe. Y
Also, Liz Toonkel’s Magic for Animals, also at Greenside. I’ve known and been a fan of Liz’s for years and haven’t had a chance to see this show yet. So I’m making a point of it while we’re over.
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