 TITLE OF SHOW: Slow Dance for a Fat Man
LENGTH OF SHOW: 120-minutes, plus intermission
INTERMISSION 15-minutes
THEME [one sentence description]: That society and the world around us is our education, our training and our freedom or our cage depending on how we absorb them and how they affect us directly or indirectly.
CONTENT [brief description]: This is a satire that Robert Greenwood has been crating for five years. The script is based on the experience he and Dana Luebke have had as they have travelled around the world three times. It is a wry look at our world, a revealing show spiced with outrageous humour, pathos and incisive wit. It pokes fun at the social, political, religious, economic, artistic and purely human situations which define our contemporary world. A modern morality play, an EVERYMAN with a twist, SLOW DANCE FOR A FAT MAN provokes controversy, challenges complacency and does all this with an enormous heart and riveting compassion that make us all laugh at our own frailties, inactions and ‘ideals’. This is a production which touches each and every audience member personally and purposefully. The Dumb One, a fat, mute boy chosen by accident to become heir to The Garden, is sent out into The Garden to become worthy, to learn and to grow. Confronted by Snake, Sex, Cardinal, Prelate, Rabbi, General, Doctor, C.E.O., Politician, Journalist and Artist, The Dumb One is inundated with ideas, feelings, lies, truths, innuendoes, attacks, probings -- all of which becomes his ‘education’, his ‘slow dance’ towards maturity and wisdom.
GOAL [the purpose of this show]: To witness, in an amusing, entertaining way, the ‘education’ we all experience with the society and its needs to control each and every one of us in ways we sometimes overlook or about which we become complacent, and to provoke emotional responses to our common human experiences that may not have to be so common after all.
POINT OF VIEW OF ARTISTS: Bob has always been a social rabble-rouser of one kind or another, but almost always with a ‘wicked’ sense of humour, and SLOW DANCE FOR A FAT MAN is not exception. Bob feels that we all need to question the powers that be, that surround us with limitations and conventions which may in the long run be damaging to our freedoms, responsibilities and inspirations and courageous imaginations.
PRESENTATION [skills used to present show]: The stage is open, a garden of Turkish tapestries, hanging silks, a white pathway, two tall, stylized chairs [which become play-pens, hiding places, sanctuaries, battle fields, operating tables, landscapes, defensive positions, etc.], a sky-cloth of vivid colours and shifting moon/sun light, like fingers poking through leaves and high-flying clouds, probing the fat tummy of The Dumb One. Visually, the production of lush, lavish and a sensuous over-load of colour, textures, music, light and sounds – like a real garden full of sounds, smells, flowers and greedy insects. The characters are truly outrageously drawn, hilarious portraits of contemporary society. The costumes are magnificent creations in silks and velvets, over-stuffed and opulent in bright, rich colours. Mannequins become sculptural manifestations of all the different races of man.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Festival and Adult, parental guidance is required. PG-13. Festival and Adult audiences who really want to think, who don’t mind being jarred, who delight in laughing at themselves and who are not shocked by satire and who demand more of themselves and the arts than is usually thought of as entertainment.
CAST [see Bios]: Robert Greenwood (actor) and [Mr.] Dana Luebke (dancer-actor), and often a third performer, usually another actor.
LANGUAGE IN WHICH SHOW IS PERFORMED: English
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS AVAILABLE:
WHERE SHOW HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY PERFORMED OR WORLD PREMIERE, ETC.: SLOW DANCE FOR A FAT MAN had its world premiere at the Dr. Betty Mitchell Theatre, Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Calgary, Alberta, in May, 1994. It has now joined the extensive repertoire of Sun.Ergos’ works and is available for touring and may be divided into two halves which can become shows in and of themselves for Festival or progressive school, college and university audiences.
REFERENCES FOR SHOW:
WORDS WHICH HAVE BEEN USED TO DESCRIBE THE SHOW:
distinctive, innovative, disciplines, intense, unforgettable, moving, timely and timeless, profound statement, first rate, wonder, great, stunning, confounding, motivating, riveting
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR MATERIALS, PLEASE CONTACT:
Administrative Assistant
Sun.Ergos, A Company of Theatre and Dance
130 Sunset Way
Priddis, Alberta, CANADA T0L 1W0
TEL 403-931-1527 TOLL FREE 1-800-743-3351
FAX 403-931-1534
e-mail: waltermoke@sunergos.com
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