Welcome to the Prairie Mainstage Series! Tickets coming soon.
About i am your spaniel
We’d like to invite you to a beginners lecture on Shakespearean First Folio text analysis. In this lecture we will cover: grammar and spelling, historical and literary context, pop culture adaptations, misplaced memories, climate disaster, violent revolution, Sam Rockwell movies, the end of the world, shoplifting, masculinity, CIA propaganda, T4T, and talking dogs.
i am your spaniel; or, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare by Gislina Patterson is a drag performance lecture in which Shakespeare scholar Gislina Patterson reads A Midsummer Night’s Dream too closely and turns into a dog. It’s about the family as a site of control, theatre as state propaganda, being in love, becoming a traitor, transformation, desire, Iggy Pop, being good, being bad, and what it means to be a man.
Know Before You Go!
PLAIN LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION: i am your spaniel is a performance that blends elements of theatre, video art, and academic lecture to unpack the complex legacy of Shakespeare’s most widely-performed work, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The performance begins with an in depth exploration of first folio text analysis which is interrupted by the performers’ memories and technical difficulties. The performance becomes more theatrical in the second half, including object puppets, original music, and reenactments.
AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE: Audiences will sit in a theatre and watch the play, which includes music and projections.
AGE RATING: 14A (Click below for more information.)
CLICK FOR FULL CONTENT ADVISORIES
Sensory Content: Sudden light changes, loud sound effects and music, layered discordant sound and
image.
Discussed/Suggested Content: The performance includes discussions of animal abuse, familial abuse, forced marriage, classism, homophobia, eugenics, masochism, landlords, murder, gender dysphoria, childhood sexual trauma, child abuse, transphobia, dog attacks, institutionalization, memory loss, capital punishment, suicide, racism, racial capitalism, agoraphobia, violence.
Depicted Content: Footage featured in the performance includes some flashing light, brief partial nudity, implied violence and dog attacks. The performance includes playfully sexualized ‘puppy play’, where one performer is led on a leash by the other, made to perform tricks, and undressed to their underwear. A reenactment of a badly staged suicide where the performer ‘stabs’ themselves by sticking a pencil between their arm and their side. A series of murders are described in detail as they are acted out using coffee cups and soda cans, some filled with fake blood and viscera.
VENUE ACCESS NOTES:
i am your spaniel is located in the Studio Theatre inside the Fringe Theatre Arts Barns. All of the building is accessible step free, and the entrance is located on the west side of the building, directly south of Orange Hall. Keep an eye out for Common Ground signage that will point the way! Paid parking is available throughout the immediate area, the closest being the parking lot north of Knox Church. Free street parking is available on 84 Avenue, and throughout the area. The facility has wheelchair-accessible gender neutral washrooms.
Cast and Creative Team!
Gislina Patterson Writer and Performer
Dasha Plett Director, Dramaturge, and Performer
Follow the creative team on Instagram!
@wequittheatre
@princessdasha.fm (dasha)
@badweirdo (gislina)
i am your spaniel is supported by:
