Poster Design by by Mina Mikhail
I’m So Close…
Created as part of The Theatre Centre Residency Program
Performed at:
Summerworks Festival, Toronto (2008)
Dublin Fringe Festival, Dublin (2008)
Theatre Centre, Toronto (2010)
The Cultch, Vancouver (2010)
Written by, directed by and starring Ravi Jain (Canada), Katrina Bugaj (USA) and Troels Hagen Findsen (Denmark)
Co-writer and Dramaturgy by Nicolas Billon (Canada)
Lighting design by Gina Scherr (USA)
Sound design by M.L. Dogg (USA)
Costume design by Kelsey Hart (Canada)
Projections designed by Jamie Nesbitt (Canada)
Part of The Theatre Centre’s Free Fall Festival in partnership with Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage Festival
and in collaboration with Out of Balanz
I’m So Close… is a heartbreaking love song, droned out by the hum of the technological landscape that is bringing us together and pushing us apart.
We are living in a world where we are more connected than we have ever been. Technology allows us to communicate instantly across oceans, and develop relationships with those who we have never even met. But at what cost? As techological advances hit the market at an accelerating rate one has to ask: how connected are we really?
This project has received generous funding from Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts and The Yousef-Warren Foundation
What they are saying about the show:
"an absorbing theatrical experience, a funny and kinetic whirl of theatre, modern dance (with some impressive moves!), projected images and dialogue."
-Artandculturemaven.com
“visually inventive”
-gracingthestage.ca
"sparks of brilliance...features many lovely moments of physical theatre"
-Globe and Mail
"Toronto-based Why Not Theatre has nailed it again – “it” being contemporary, experimental, physical theatre of the highest order;
Jain, Bugaj and Findsen, who co-created the play, are not only brilliant writers and creatives, but they are talented, dynamic actors…all three players move with such grace that they sometimes seem more like dancers than actors.
I’m So Close. . . weaves together modern technology, neolithic-era archaeology and a love story, all the while questioning the purpose of human life. There are artful layers of meaning to this piece of theatre – all you have to do is show up and get ready to peel them back.
“On the scale of bad to good, there’s good, and then there’s off-the-chart radiant.” I’ll state the obvious: I’m So Close. . . is radiant."
-Mooneyontheatre.com
"I’m So Close… is skillfully scripted and beautifully acted. The show was creative, funny and well-crafted. The trio of actors has a chemistry not easily matched, and the use of sound editing, projection, and physicality, make the play one of the most enjoyable contemporary, tragic-comedies in Toronto."
-mondomagazine.net
Performed and Toured
Summerworks Festival, Toronto – winner of the Spotlight Award August 2008Dublin Fringe Festival, Ireland Dublin Fringe Festival, Ireland
"This avant-garde three hander does away with a conventional plot. More like a collage of absurdist meditations on human strictures like time and technology…it unfolds with delightful unpredictability... The Company peppers the performance with unique stage stunts…this acting trio is packed with potential…"
- Now Magazine
"This show made me laugh, it made me cry and it made me think. I was impressed with the creativity of storytelling, physicality, character, and staging. It moved my mind and my heart (which is what I hope for every time I walk into a theatre). I'm So Close It's Not Even Funny is filled with controlled chaos, wonderful physicality, clever comedy, emotional poignancy and a sense of reality and grounding that only comes from experienced and talented performers. Brilliant."
- Plank Magazine (Click here to read full review)
"arresting sequences- the windswept dash of Hagen's homo exhausticus, the iceberg peaks that rise magically from Katrina Bugaj's bed sheets or the moving correspondence between drifting lovers via Instant messenger..."
- Irish Times (Dublin)
"impressively talented in their chosen genre of physical theatre"
- Sunday Independent (Dublin)
"There’s a touch of Wonderland to the opening of Why Not Theatre’s production. Like Lewis Carroll’s white rabbit, by two, Katrina Bugaj and Ravi Jain announce their lateness repeatedly as we enter the space on time. The conceit gives way to other temporal trysts and astronomical inquiries. While musings such as ‘What happens to a shooting star when it trails across the sky?’ and ‘An end isn’t an end – it becomes something’ fly close to sentimentality, the brisk rotation of words and bodies keeps mawkishness at bay... extraordinary images take us by the throat: a polar bear trudging across a briefcase; a shadowy x-ray; a chat-box that closes on the brink of a declaration."
- Irish Theatre Magazine (Dublin)