Was at the Hamilton Fringe Festival yesterday and saw For Keira, which is a short one-person piece, part of the festival's "Gallery Series". His company, Broken Soil Theatre, has produced shows in the Hamilton Fringe for the past three years. They seem to be moving in the direction of real life. The first, Jamie's Gone, was a large cast semi-surreal production about an allegedly abducted child in a small town. The second, Places, was a much more straightforward love story (with some interesting nonheteronormative twists).
For Keira is a look at the frightening combination of technology and our legal system, where young people attempting to explore and understand their sexuality wind up unintentionally creating what is legally defined as child pornography. The story is told strictly from the point of view of one of the young people involved. It's a solo confessional delivered into a video camera. It's a point of view on an important issue rarely expressed. The piece isn't offering answers, simply shining light on the issue itself.
As I've mentioned before, the Gallery series is awkward. At 20 minutes, the turnaround between shows is longer than the length of the shows themselves (and this gallery has nothing to look at except some white clay figurines of naked pig-men...)
For Keira has five performances left at the Hamilton Artists Inc. Gallery (155 James Street North, Hamilton) Tickets are available at the door ($8 with a $5 Fringe Backer button). The full schedule is available online.