Friday, September 5 2008

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Tricia Collins will be featured in Gravity this weekend....

THIS WEEKEND, Canadian-born actress Tricia Collins will star in Gravity, a one-woman show that interweaves storytelling, myths and facts, at the Learning Resource Centre, UWI, St Augustine, from tomorrow at 8 pm.

Gravity, which is being staged in conjunction with Pickney Productions and Arts-in-Action, tells the story of four women, connected by blood and by forces pulling and pushing them together and apart; and their love for life and each other.

The hugely successful world premiere of Gravity, a theatrical video installation which follows three generational journeys of women from China to Guyana to Canada, took place at Chapel Arts in Vancouver last year. The production is currently touring internationally.

Collins is fresh from a performance at Carifesta in Guyana, where the production received excellent reviews.

“This production is about bringing people together. It’s a one woman play about Chinese women in the British Indenture system. It’s exciting for me to be able to tell such stories and portray the characters. Gravity will elevate, entertain and excite the audience,” Collins told Newsday. A review of Gravity in the Vancouver Sun states, “Tricia Collins wraps herself in a technical tour de force that, happily, transcends mere gimmickry. Gravity is a fascinating hour of theatre blending light, sound, video and more physical elements in a wholly satisfying piece of performance art.

“Directed with a fine eye for detail by Maiko Bae Yamamoto, Collins creates a mystical journey from fragments of her own past. She shifts in and out of different generations, as a great-great grandmother who was kidnapped from China and sold into slavery in Guyana is the first in a line of women who lead to Maya, a young Canadian seeking her roots.

“Cramming herself in a crate as the kidnapped woman or working well with circus silks in symbol-rich scenes set above a waterfall, Collins crafts each of the characters with an ear for their differences — the frightened Chinese woman will lead to a confident, cocky young Guyanese gal and finally to Maya, who hopes to help the South American nation’s capital of Georgetown as it sinks into the sea.”

Collins, whose work circles around race politics, multimedia elements and fusions of form and culture, is also a writer and the artistic director of Buss Up Shut Productions. Her TV and film credits include The Guard, Luna: Spirit of the Whale, Water Muse for CBC Television, and Reaper. Radio series include the upcoming CBC Radio One Series entitled Swimming To China, which aired last month for the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Gravity continues on Sunday with shows at 2 pm and 7 pm. Tickets, are priced at $125 in advance and $150 at the door and are available at the Learning Resource Centre, UWI. For further information call 320-0041, 786-2654, or 663-0372.