Saturday, January 19, 2008

The Four Horsemen Project

As part of this year's PuSH Festival, Toronto's independent theatre company, Volcano, performed its tribute to the poets who in 1970 formed the sound poetry group, the Four Horsemen. The ensemble consisted of Paul Dutton, Steve McCaffery, Rafael Barreto-Rivera and bp nichol.

The festival performance, a combination of dance and vocal work, complemented by media projections, is built around bp nichol's two-and-a-half-minute 'pome poem' (definitely worth clicking on and listening to).

Choreographed by Kate Alton, the cast features Jennifer Dahl, Graham McKelvie, Naoko Murakoshi and Sarah Sanford. By turns, they had the audience laughing, gasping, humming along -- and best of all, thinking -- about what poetry is, what it can or should do, and about just how delightful pure sound can be.

Besides showing in Victoria and Vancouver, The Four Horsemen Project has been invited to Fringe Festivals in both Dublin and Edinburgh. Worth buying a ticket for when it comes around again, which it's bound to.

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