At the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. November 6, 2013
Posted November 9, 2013
Credit: Tav Rayne
As the evenings grow colder we reach for the thermostat, light the fireplace or throw another log on the woodstove. But on Wednesday, November 6, almost a hundred and fifty men, women and kids cozied up in the Shadbolt Centre Studio Theatre for the 3rd annual holiday edition of The Flame: Real People. True Stories.
In collaboration with Metro Vancouver: Create Memories. Not Garbage, this special edition was taped by Shaw TV for broadcast throughout December on Channel 4. So if you missed the event, you can catch it later on TV at home. In keeping with the spirit of the show – celebrating a sustainable Christmas – maybe you could skip the frenzy of last minute Christmas Eve shopping and sit down with family and friends to watch it.
Credit: Tav Rayne
On November 6, each of the nine storytellers related a favourite Christmas story from their own experience: the miraculous recovery of Grant Lawrence’s beloved rat-poisoned dog; Beverley Elliott’s renewed desire for a real tree – as opposed to an artificial one – despite being humiliated by a hunky fireman last year at the chipping station; Marylee Stephenson’s conversation with a homeless fellow outside the SeaBus station on New Year’s Eve; and more.
Each story was unique, ranging from the sublime – several million snowy white birds on Laysan Island in the South Pacific (told by poet/conservationist Ian Thomas) – to the ridiculous – Mark Leiren-Young, dressed in a Rudolph suit, being hugged by hundreds of little kids in Kingsgate Mall.
Camille Gingras’s story about being away from home and taken in by a complete stranger one Christmas Eve struck a chord with many of us and we laughed at Yukon vegetarian Kevin Kennedy’s tale of butchering a couple of deer only to discover they weren’t edible. And no evening of Christmas tales would be complete without a child’s hockey story (Jacques Lalonde) or a Jewish perception of Christmas as told by Lee Weinstein who, as a boy, only longed for a pinkie ring like the one worn by a gangster relative.
Credit: Tav Rayne
Music for the evening was supplied by Their There, a lively six-piece band.
The November 6 evening was the special Holiday Edition of The Flame, a monthly storytelling event co-created and co-produced by Deborah Williams (Mom’s the Word co-creator/performer) and Joel Wirkkunen, a regular Bard on the Beach performer. Now in its fifth season of real people telling real stories that must be true and less than 8 minutes long, The Flame packs audiences into the Cottage Bistro at 29th and Main Street on the first Wednesday of each month; the 2014 season kicks off on January 8. You can catch up on past stories – including Christopher Gaze’s story about his brief, inadvertent career as a pimp, forsooth! – at https://soundcloud.com/joelwirkkunen.
Happy Sustainable Christmas from The Flame and Metro Vancouver! Seize the season – sustainably – before it seizes you: good advice from The Flame: Holiday Edition host, Deborah Williams.
Credit: Tav Rayne
All photos contributed by Tav Rayne:
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