It’s an age-old tale, told time and time again.
Four historical interpreters in a northern gold rush town form a comedy troupe and reunite eight years later at Victoria’s Intrepid Theatre Club.
Christina Patterson and David Radford of Launch Pad Productions were two of those performers working the streets of Barkerville along with Chris Cooley and Stewart Cawood when the seeds of their latest project Watch for Bones were first planted.
“We spent the days basically interpreting history for tourists and we needed to blow off steam in other creative outlets,” said Patterson, a regular performer on Sin City, and woman behind Tara Firm and the Lunar War Chronicles, which she produced through Launch Pad with husband, Radford.
The group produced a cabaret in the historic Cariboo town in 2005 and have since stayed in touch, despite a cross-country move to Toronto and back to Victoria via Vancouver for Patterson and Radford. Eventually Cooley relocated to the Island and with Cawood, a co-writer for The Saints of British Rock, willing to visit the capital city for the show, the stage was set for Watch for Bones’ Episode One, Emission: Impossible, an evening of sketches, musical comedy, a little standup and some harder-to-categorize elements.
“Rather than the traditional lights up, lights down, disjointed sketches, (Radford) wanted them all to blend together as seamlessly as possible.”
The show starts at 8 p.m. Jan. 10, 11 and 12 at the Intrepid Theatre Club, 1609 Blanshard St., and is rumoured to feature impossibilist Peter Reveen.
“Now is the time to branch out and see how we do,” said Patterson, who describes returning to Victoria as an opening up of the senses. “I don’t feel there’s a ton of sketch here in Victoria. There’s lots of improv and there’s a lot of really great standup comedians. The sketch that is here is really good, but there’s not a lot of it.”
Call 250-590-7235 and leave a message with your name and contact information to reserve tickets, $15 cash only at the door.
