The COVID-19 pandemic has been nothing short of a worldwide disaster. From pole to pole, we’ve seen several businesses come to a close, countless lives lost, and our very way of life altered for what’s sure to be the long run. The losses we’ve experienced from the pandemic will never outweigh the things we’ve gained.
Despite this, there’s something to be said about the introspection opportunities that we’ve been afforded. With that in mind, if any art project is up for the job of addressing these introspections, it has to be The Fifth Wall, the multi-artist project headed by Fredericton theatre artists Corenski Nowlan and Scott Shannon, of Herbert The Cow Productions and Nasty Shadows Theatre Co., respectively.
With social distancing restrictions still in place, Nowlan and Co. had to think outside of the box to put The Fifth Wall together.
“It was an uncertain time,” says Nowlan. “Did we really flatten the curve here in New Brunswick? Will there be a second wave? None of us knew what the Summer was going to look like.” “Like almost everything in 2020, it’s so different from anything we know.”
Staged in a parking lot at Fredericton’s St. Thomas University, “The Fifth Wall” is a collection of short plays from New Brunswick playwrights, all of them relating to the pandemic in some way, shape, form, or fashion. Kicking off the show was Jason McIntyre’s Eulogy. Written by McIntyre and starring McIntyre, Eulogy follows a grieving man, known only as J, as he laments his deceased, conspiracy-obsessed brother, who was killed after hosting a “COVID party.”
McIntyre’s delivery is a resoundingly-familiar blend of stoicism and grief, perfect for a eulogy for a beloved brother taken by a foolish choice. This one-man show is one of the two shows that take on the COVID-19 theme from a very topical standpoint. Simply put, this disease kills and treating it as though it’s fake or a joke may just yield a certain outcome accordingly.
Up next is Jilly Hanson’s Portrait Of A Late-Twenties Woman In Quarantine, the other topical component of the project. Anchored by the charisma and chemistry of Mallory Kelly and Naomi McGowan, Portrait Of A Late-Twenties Woman In Quarantine, is a hilarious-yet-poignant commentary on the “productivity crisis” many of us may have suffered from thanks to the pandemic.
The show introduces us to the hysterical A, who is hell-bent on being productive and “not falling behind” during their quarantine, and her roommate B, who does what she can (read: uses plant metaphors) to console her. Among their highly-entertaining back-and-forth is A’s tireless rant about productivity and achievement that almost verges on satirical; the surefire highlight of Hanson’s script.
By the middle of the show, we’ve reached the production written by Nowlan himself and, in true Nowlan fashion, it’s positively brimming with dystopian, alternate-universe energy. (in)Tangibles is the story of a pandemic-torn Earth and three sisters, known as “The Cult of Sanitation Sisters.” The show imagines a future without a pandemic, but with ten times the paranoia.
“There has not been a pandemic for decades,” Nowlan says of the show’s setting. “It ended. But paranoia did not end and so the hyper sanitation and social distancing measures became not only law but a way of life.”
(in)Tangibles is a deliciously satirical show, targetting everything from the real-world politics games to the exaggerated citizen control. What’s more, Nowlan also fully embraces the situation he’s satirizing by having his actors break character to disrupt the show, much like how the pandemic has disrupted our very lives. A questionable choice to be sure, but the world-building and in-character satire provided alongside it makes (in)Tangibles a very worthwhile watch.
Rounding off the show is Scott Shannon’s ISOLATION JONES(?), a continuity piece of Shannon’s character JONES, who first appeared in his 2019 play A STORY JONES.
“The play, like ISOLATION JONES(?) takes place in a distant future that might or might not be our world,” says Shannon of JONES’s origin piece. “The Great Seclusion has happened and people are not to gather. I don’t get into the ‘why’, but it fits perfectly with our current pandemic.
“These are two plays out five so far that all occur in this world, with some related characters and ideas and themes overlap, but hopefully each work stands as its own piece as well.”
In this one-man show, JONES, played by Shannon, picks up right where A STORY JONES left off. JONES, void of his storytelling space, desperately reaches for some creative alternative to his beloved storytelling, which the show plays off on for its material.
Though a tad confusing without the story of its prequel fresh in one’s mind, there’s certainly something to be said about Shannon’s heartfelt, quirky delivery. The thing with artists is that they’ll always find a way to thrive in the most uncertain of times. Increase the artist count exponentially and multiply it by some topical nuance, and you’ve got the formula for The Fifth Wall.
THE FIFTH WALL can be seen performed in the Vanier Hall Parking Lot at St. Thomas University on August 13th, 14th and 15th, for a suggested donation of $5 or more. Space is limited to 50 audience members per night so RSVP is recommended! RSVP/send E-Transfer to: nastyshadows@gmail.com