Caravan Theatre (The Bear and the Proposal)

A summer at the lake is just not complete without a trip to Caravan Farm Theatre.  For years, I have been wrangling up the kids to see the outdoor show.  It does involve a small road trip to get there (4886 Salmon River Rd, Armstrong, BC V0E 1B4), but it is always worth it.  There is not really anything that quite compares to open air theatre, and there is generally a horse or two that shows up on the stage at some point!  :-)

Janet pressed me to join her on the night that she and her work colleagues were attending.  Always fun to go with others.   So, Bonnie and I grabbed Alice Johnson to join us (since she has just started doing Storybook Theatre this year).

the.playbill!

The play this year was "The Bear and the Proposal: An Okanagan Wedding Party".  According to the website, it was to be an adaptation of two "hilarious" plays by Anton Chekhov.  I don't know about the rest of you, but the words Chekhov and hilarious didn't really go together in my imagination (I have seen Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard, and while both were amazing, the word "hilarious" did not come to mind).

Musicians at work in front of the stage, minutes before it started

As always, we try to read up in advance.  Bonnie, Alice and I headed out to DQ in advance to share a meal before driving, and to find out everying that google could tell us about this adaptation of the two stories.   

And, big surprise?  We leared that Chekhov did in fact write stories that were along the vaudville line.  Go figure?!  

Further, we learned that the adapation of two of his stories ("The Bear
" and "The Proposal") would also be set in the Okanagan in the 1860s-1900s, and would feature musicial numbers.  In short, it was a bit like Baz Lurhman's Moulin Rouge, with contemporary songs being drawn into a new context (ie by Alannis Morrisette, Limp Bizkit, Bryan Adams, Willie Dunn...). 

the lights on the bleachers at the end of the night

At the beginning, we (the audience) got to hang out in the pavillion, while the actors/singers (all in costume) wandered around chatting with the audience.  We also go to listen to Randy Williams (Splatsín) drum and sing songs for us.  I really loved hearing him sing.  It was a particular treat since he is also one of the community participants who was interviewed in the first Secwepemc Lands and Resources project with ILRU!

Bonnie, me, Janet and Alice in a 'nighttime shadow selfie'

The plays themselves were well  set up (great intro by Jani Lauzon), in ways that invited us to think not only of 'marriage' but of all the ways we can think about making kinship with others in the world, and of better ways to build relationships across difference.  And then it set the Chekhov stories in a way that did so much teaching of local history, without feeling in the least like a lecture.  I was in awe!  And laughed my guts out.  And felt a bit weepy at points (in a good way).  

Moon above the trees as we walked to the car

It was a perfect evening, enjoying the amazing actors, musicians, props, horses and chickens (no chickens were injured in the play! lol).  As the night went on, and sunset arrived, the artificial lights came on.  Couldn't have been better.

To close, some shots of the moon hanging in the sky as we returned to our car, for the ride home (which included Alice sharing her favourite songs from the show with us, so we could do a 'sing-a-long' together).

a moon caught in the trees?

a full close up (80X zoom)

I am a bit sad to be writing up this post after the fact rather than before, since if the show were still running, I would absolutely go again!