Pathetic Fallacy, The Chop Theatre [2018]
Over the past 40 years, there have been more frequent extreme weather events than ever before in human history. Up until 40 years ago, hurricanes were only given female names. Hurricanes with female names kill more people than hurricanes with male names because people don’t prepare for them as thoroughly. People will accept any colour of sky in a painting as realistic. A green sky means a storm is coming.
Using a temperamental broadcast media green screen, this piece explores our complicated relationship to weather. Landscape painting, small talk, meteorological science and pathetic fallacy – the attribution of human feelings to non-human things, like the weather – come together in this personal and factual work.
Creator Anita Rochon set herself the challenge of creating a touring piece with a touring party of zero. Each performance, a different local stand-in takes on the central role in a curious and hopeful show that draws a line between ancient weather gods and our present-day climate crisis.
Text & Direction Anita Rochon
Projection Design Candelario Andrade & Milton Lim
Original Projection Design Jordan Lloyd Watkins
Outside Eye & Dramaturgy Mark Chavez & Emelia Symington Fedy
Dramaturgy Sarah Stanley
Lighting Design Itai Erdal
Video Audio Malcolm Dow
Pathetic Fallacy was originally commissioned by Theatre Replacement as part of a Collider Residency, and was presented at PushOFF in 2018 & 2019.
The development of this piece was supported by Theatre Replacement, Farnham Maltings, the City of Vancouver and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Photos by Samantha Madely, Sophia Wolfe, Jordan Lloyd Watkins, and Anita Rochon
Performances:
Rumble Theatre presentation (live stream remount) November 25 - 29th, 2020
CanadaHUB (tour) at Edinburgh Fringe July 31st - August 25th, 2019
OFFTA (tour), Montreal, QC May 29 - 30, 2019
Spark Festival (tour), Victoria, BC March 19th - 23rd, 2019
Darwin Festival (world premiere) Darwin, Australia August 10th - 12th, 2018
Festival of Live Digital Art (work-in-progress) Kingston, ON June 20th, 2018
PushOFF, Theatre Replacement (work-in-progress) Vancouver, BC February 1st, 2018
