Credit: Gavin McKenzie
At The Anderson Street Space (TASS) until March 2
604-684-2622/bocadellupo.com
Posted on March 1, 2013
Sparkling jewel. Tiny gem. Small treasure. These all – inadequately – describe this utterly charming little piece presented by Boca del Lupo as part of their Micro Performance Series. Created and performed by England’s Davy and Kristin McGuire, the press release reads: “The Icebook is a miniature theatre show made of paper and light. An exquisite experience of fragile paper cutouts and video projections that sweep you right into the heart of a fantasy world. It is an intimate and immersive experience of animation, book art and performance.”
Twelve viewers at a time enter a tiny darkened room where there’s a 
little stage a few feet in front of us and what looks like a picture book – less than a meter square – lying on a table. One by one Kristin McGuire opens the pages with their pop-up paper pictures beginning with a little paper house with cutout windows. Eventually we see tiny, tiny man through one of the windows. And the story goes on from there: a sailboat, a lighthouse, and a mysterious woman in white. I don’t understand the technique behind all of this but it’s totally rivetting; there’s not a sound from the dozen viewers. A small boy was there the night I attended and he appeared to be enthralled. While Boca says the show is inter-generational, Kristin McGuire said they’re not seeking a young audience. A lightning storm in the story is pretty scary and, apparently, the little boy was in tears – in a good way – at the end of this twenty-minute performance piece. What happens to the woman in white when she’s brought in from the cold might resonate on some metaphorical level with adults but for a child it might be disturbing – although generations of children have been dealing with the fate of Frosty The Snowman.
The Micro Performance Series is all about cross-disciplinary performances and installations in non-traditional venues. Yet to come are Boca del Lupo’s The Voyage, March 27-30; Radix’s The Performance Art Trap, April 24-27; and Mammalian Diving Reflex’s Ask A Teenager, May 22-25. Like the shows, the audiences are tiny, too, so tickets can be hard to come by. Book early.
If the whole series is as beguiling as The Icebox, you won’t want to miss the rest of the Micro Performance Series whose slogan might echo Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Café, “We may not be big, but we’re small” or “Good things come in small packages”.
