From this Sunday (October 22) until October 28th, more than 150 poets from across the country will be in Peterborough to participate in the annual Canadian Festival of Spoken Word — the biggest spoken word festival in Canada.

This is the first time the festival has been held in the Kawarthas, and the first time since 2011 the festival has been held in Ontario. Peterborough is also the smallest city to ever host the festival, which has in the past been held in major cities across Canada including Vancouver, Toronto, Halifax, Calgary, Ottawa, and Montreal.

Jon Hedderwick, the festival director and member of the Peterborough Poetry Slam Collective, says organizers put a bid to host the festival in Nogojiwanong/Peterborough about two years ago.

“We’re kind of a unique space in the world of spoken word poetry,” he explains in an interview with CHEX Daily on why Peterborough was selected as the host city.

“We’re recognized nationally for having a really unique sound and a really wonderful spoken word scene in the city. We’ve been growing as a community and as a scene for quite a number of years and I think people are just interested to see what we can bring.”

The Canadian Festival of Spoken Word began in Ottawa in 2004 as the Canadian Spoken Wordlympics, the first national gathering of poetry slam teams. Organizers were inspired by the success of the National Poetry Slam in the United States and decided to create a similar flagship event in Canada.

That inaugural festival included six teams of poets and, since then, the festival has grown to attract more than 20 teams from across Canada. Around 160 poets from seven different provinces will be attending the festival in Peterborough. These include poets who will be featured performers and those who will be conducting workshops and master classes and participating in panel discussions, as well as poets from 25 poetry collectives across Canada who are sending teams of five poets each to compete in the festival slams.

And it’s the slams that are at the heart of the festival. A poetry slam is a competitive event where poets stand before a mic and read their original work for no longer than three minutes. Work can include all genres, forms, and styles of poetry but no aids (music, props, costumes, nudity, etc.) are allowed. Five judges randomly selected from the audience will score the poet’s performance.

Hosted by the Peterborough Poetry Slam Collective in partnership with Public Energy and Spoken Word Canada, the festival begins on Sunday afternoon (October 22) at 1:30 p.m. with a “Play with Poetry” workshop for children at The Theatre On King. On Sunday night at 7 p.m., there will be a “Wild Card Slam”, where eight visiting poets can earn their way onto a wild card team to compete in the team slam tournament. Halifax poet, filmmaker, and activist Andre Fenton will be the featured performer.

On Monday (October 23), there will be a slam poet orientation session at 3 p.m. at the Market Hall, which will also host the opening gala of the festival on Monday night at 8 p.m.

The first four preliminary poetry slam bouts begin on Tuesday (October 24) at 6 p.m. and at 8 p.m. at The Venue and at Shots, with four more bouts happening at the same venues and times on Wednesday (October 25). The final three preliminary bouts take place on Thursday (October 26) at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. at The Venue and at Shots.

The two semi-final poetry slam bouts take place beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday (October 27) at the Market Hall, with the finals and closing gala taking place at the Market Hall at 7 p.m. on Saturday (October 28), where this year’s festival champions will be crowned. Poets Mitcholos Touchie, Charlie Petch, and Rabbit Richards will also be showcased at the closing gala. An after-party at Market Hall will take place at 10 p.m., closing out the festival.

In addition to the slam competitions, there are numerous performances, workshops, master classes, and panel sessions taking place throughout the week. Every morning from Monday to Friday, Kay’la Fraser will be leading “Po-Yo”, which combines yoga with mindfulness and poetry. The Collisions Cafe Show, featuring performances from different poets, will be held daily around noon from Tuesday to Saturday at different venues. Master classes will be held throughout the week with poets Andre Prefontaine, Dan Yashinsky, Rabbit Richards, Lillian Allen, and Charlie Petch.

This is only a sampling of 50-plus events taking place during the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. For a complete listing of all the events, see our Canadian Festival of Spoken Word events column.

The cost for an all-access pass to the festival — which includes admission to all poetry slams, performances, panels, and additional events, as well as one workshop and one master class — is $40 ($30 for students or the under-waged). Pass holders also get discounted prices for additional workshops and master classes as well as the Po-Yo mornings. Passes can be purchased in advance on Eventbrite.

If you don’t want to purchase an all-access pass, you can buy tickets at the door for individual poetry slams for $10 ($5 students or under-waged), feature performances for $15 ($10 students or under-waged), master classes for $25 ($20 students or under-waged), and workshops for $20 ($5 students or under-waged). You can also purchase an evening pass for $20 ($15 students or under-waged).

All panel discussion and daytime showcases are free.

For more information about the festival, visit the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word website at cfsw.ca or follow the festival on Facebook.

Editor’s note: Several festival events were scheduled to take place at The Spill, which closed permanently on October 18. Festival organizers have relocated these events to other venues. Our Canadian Festival of Spoken Word events column includes the new locations.

Every Thursday, we publish live music and performance events at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, October 19 to Wednesday, October 25.

If you’re a pub or club owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our Nightlife Editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com.

On Thursday, October 19th, Planet 12 Productions premieres Incident On Gun Mountain at The Theatre on King (TTOK) in downtown Peterborough.

A brand new thriller written and directed by Derek Weatherdon, this is Planet 12 Production’s second original show and features the talents of Lindsay Unterlander, Kelsey Gordon Powell, Nathan Govier, and Abbie Dale in a tense production calculated to thrill the audience.

Following their success with Boy Wonders earlier this year, Planet 12 Productions has a mandate to give kids a theatrical education in drama that goes beyond the usual fare made available for them. While the kids were on the stage for Boy Wonders, for Incident On Gun Mountain they are behind the scenes, producing a well-oiled and highly professional-looking piece of theatre starring three of Peterborough’s favourite adult actors.

Taking place in the 1970s, Incident On Gun Mountain tells the story of Wayne (Nathan Govier), his wife Becky (Lindsay Unterlander), and his brother-in-law Roger (Kelsey Gordon Powell) who go into the deep woods for the annual deer hunt.

Early one morning, as Becky stays behind to tend to breakfast, Wayne returns to the cabin in a state of shock. After being questioned by his wife and brother-in-law, Wayne explains that he shot something in the woods that wasn’t an animal, but wasn’t human.

Fearing that Wayne could be arrested for manslaughter, Roger and Becky contemplate what to do to get Wayne out of his predicament.

But as tempers flare, it becomes evident that something is lurking in the woods — and whatever it is wants answers for what happened to one of their own.

Incident On Gun Mountain is a smart little piece that feels like an episode of The Twilight Zone twisted with the sensibilities of a ’70s Grindhouse film. Yet while he has written a play about the unknown things that lurk in the darkness, Derek also manages to put a lot of interesting themes into the script — including an examination of the legality of the rights of beast and man, as well as a realistic look at sexual and gender dynamics within the family unit during the mid-1970s.

It’s a well-penned yet compact show that’s compelling to watch and filled with some fun thrills.

For Incident On Gun Mountain, Lindsay, Kelsey, and Nathan come together as a complete unit, but with each individual character bringing something dynamic to the narrative.

In the role of Wayne, Nathan portrays a simple man who is in an unusual situation far beyond his understanding. Unsure just what he has killed and what the consequences are going to be as a result, Nathan plays fear and confusion to the point where he is almost in a state of catatonic shock.

Meanwhile, Kelsey portrays Roger as an alpha male with cocksure machismo, filled with terrible ideas and shouting orders. If Wayne portrays fear, what Roger portrays is panic and chaos.

Caught in the middle is Lindsay, who gives the strongest performance of the night as Becky, a woman who gave up a lot due to her sense of duty to family. Becky has a different kind of battle waging in the cabin. Not only is she fighting to survive the night from the terror that lies in the woods, she is also fighting for her sense of dignity as a woman.

A special shout out goes to Abbie Dale who opens the show as the granddaughter of Becky and Wayne. Abbie introduces the piece in a dramatic prologue, setting up the scene for the audience, and giving a hint of the dread to come. A nice little character piece by a talented young actress, Abbie’s performance continues Planet 12’s tradition of giving young performers interesting roles on the stage.

Beyond its intelligent script and some great performances, the most impressive element of Incident on Gun Mountain is the production itself. Staged managed by Aimee Gordon and Samuelle Weatherdon, the Planet 12 crew has put together an impressive production.

Visually the piece is stunning, with one of the most impressive sets that I have ever seen at TTOK. Created by Amy and Emily Keller, and featuring imaginative and appropriate rustic props by Emma Meinhardt, the set piece is incredibly impressive to look at. The show is also enhanced by lighting design by Ryan Kerr and assisted by Samuelle Weatherdon, with an important soundscape by Isaac Maker.

The result is a very professional=looking piece of drama put together by some really talented kids.

During this busy weekend of theatre, take the time to make Incident On Gun Mountain part of your weekend plans. It’s a strong follow up to Boy Wonders, one of the most talked about shows of 2017. For those people who regretted missing that show, you’ll not want to make the same mistake of missing this one.

As a side note, the cast and producers of Incident on Gun Mountain will be doing a special presentation and talk-back feature for the show during the Friday night performance. I have been asked to stay quiet about the nature of the presentation as not to spoil certain aspects of the show, but I can say the presentation connects a major plot point of the show with a historical anniversary that evening. I wish I could reveal more, but let me just say that this presentation will be extremely interesting and an extra treat for the TTOK audience on Friday night.

Incident On Gun Mountain runs from Thursday, October 19th to Saturday, October 21st at TTOK at 8 p.m., and an additional early evening show at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are $10 at the door or pay what you can.

Get ready to do the Necronomicon!

One of the most anticipated shows of the year, Evil Dead The Musical opens at the Market Hall in downtown Peterborough on Wednesday, October 18th. Directed by Caitlin O’Connor and produced by Barb Mills, Evil Dead The Musical is the inaugural production of Peterborough’s newest theatre company, Killer Tree Productions, and is a perfect fun-filled Halloween favourite with four performances between October 18th and 20th.

Evil Dead The Musical is an unlikely Canadian theatre success story. Performed throughout the world, the show has amassed it own cult following which is as devoted to the stage show as to the original films that inspired it.

A musical comedy retelling of Sam Raimi’s classic horror films The Evil Dead (1981) and Evil Dead II (1987) featuring Bruce Campbell as larger-than-life hero Ash Williams, the stage show was originally developed as a class project by four Queen’s University theatre students (Christopher Bond, Frank Cipolla, Melissa Morris, and George Reinblatt) who brought the show at the Randolph Theatre in 2003.

After a sellout success of its initial run, the show made headlines a year later when it became a festival favourite at the Montreal Comedy Festival. Due to its outstanding success, Evil Dead The Musical found a home off-Broadway in New York City in 2006, sealing its place in musical theatre canon, with the show’s popularity growing as theatre companies throughout the world have embraced this offbeat but beloved production.

Anybody who has seen the Evil Dead films knows the story, and the musical doesn’t stray very far from its source material. Five college students — Ash Williams (Andrew Little), his girlfriend Linda (Caitlin O’Connor), best friend Scotty (Lance Issacs), party girl Cheryl (Carly Evans), and Ash’s dorky sister Shelly (Lindsay Barr) — go for a spring break trip to an isolated cabin in the woods.

Upon arrival, the group discover a tape recorder owned by the cabin’s missing inhabitant, Professor Knosby. When they play the tape, they hear Knosby reciting passages from the fabled Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (a.k.a. “The Book of the Dead”). The incantations open up a floodgate of evil and what was supposed to be a fun holiday filled with friendship, togetherness, and premarital sex turns into a fight for survival as Ash and his friend’s battle for their souls against a Deadite army of Kandarian demons.

Meanwhile, in a plot ripped out of Evil Dead II, Professor Knosby’s daughter Annie (Meisha Browne) and her fiancé Ed (Addison Wylie) hire woodsy hillbilly Jake (Brandon Remmelgas) to lead them through the dark words filled with killer trees to the cursed cabin in search for Annie’s missing father — not realizing the eternal battle between good and evil already taking place at their destination.

Evil Dead The Musical is a show filled with everything: music, romance, comedy, good times, and Deadite bloodshed. Killing demons has never sounded this good!

The fun thing about Evil Dead The Musical is that it is not only a send up of horror films and the Evil Dead movies, but musical theatre as well. Audiences don’t go to this musical expecting to see something of the calibre of Hamilton or Les Misérables. Evil Dead The Musical doesn’t try to be anything except what it is: a campy and over-the-top show filled with stupid puns and silly sight gags that pokes fun at its own ridiculousness. The whole thing is a giant joke that both the actors and the audience are in on.

With the exception of a handful of actors, most of Killer Tree Production’s cast of Evil Dead The Musical is made up of performers who are well-seasoned musicians performing musical theatre for the first time.

It is great to see some new faces in the cast, and not a cast made up of the usual suspects but, as a result, Evil Dead The Musical isn’t as polished as some of the larger Peterborough musicals jam packed with performers who have been doing musical theatre for years. Personally, I enjoyed the rawness of the performances, and the more seasoned actors truly support the others on stage. The comraderie of the cast is very evident, adding to the likeability of the production.

Andrew Little has huge shoes to fill in playing the iconic role of Ash, but he manages to walk the fine tightrope of creating homage to Bruce Campbell without doing an impersonation.

Andrew truly understands the role of Ash and plays him with tons of bravado and with his tongue firmly stuck in his cheek. Ash Williams is a perfect role for Andrew, and he brings a true sense of fun to the role. While he’s the star of the show, Andrew is a giving actor who allows the performers around him to have their individual moments. Whether he is fighting with his own demon-possessed hand, arguing with a crocheted moose head, or decapitating demons, Andrew is a lot of fun to watch.

However, the break-out star of the show is definitely Lindsay Barr as Ash’s sister Cheryl. Making her acting debut, the popular Peterborough musician steals every scene. Lindsay has great comedic timing, first as a prudish and dorky kid sister with a slurpy lisp, and then as a creepy possessed pun-sprouting demon that taunts Ash and company with some of the silliest lines of the night. Lindsay is simultaneously terrifying and hilarious and a total delight to watch. As someone who knows how to already work an audience, she has taken this ability and applied it to what will hopefully become a continuing acting career. Her performance is a blast.

One of the things that really make Evil Dead The Musical work are the memorable songs written for the show. With such great songs such as “Cabin in the Woods”, “Housewares Employee”, “What the Fuck Was That?”, “Bit-Part Demon”, and the show-stopping “Do the Necronomicon”, the music is surprisingly singable. With a great band led by Ryan Browne and the cast filled with seasoned musicians and singers, Evil Dead The Musical is strongest when the performers are singing, and its musical numbers are truly entertaining.

The musical moment of the show goes to Brandon Remmelgas’ performance of “Good Old Reliable Jake”. I’m not sure if Brandon was allowed to just do his own choreography for the number, but it’s a great bit that is really a lot of fun. Brandon also teams up with Andrew to back up Meisha Browne’s equally strong number “All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Kandarian Demons”. While every musical number in the show has an entertaining moment, these two are easily the best of the night.

The thing to remember about Evil Dead The Musical is that it is exactly what you think it is. Is it the best musical you’re going to see this year? Possibly not. But is it going to be the funnest? Most likely yes.

If you don’t think that Evil Dead The Musical is going to be your thing, then it probably isn’t. But it is the perfect show for people who may not go to traditional musicals: people who love horror, racy humour, foul language, ridiculous comedy, and tons of gore. It might not be for everybody, but it’s ideal for anybody looking for a fun way to celebrate the Halloween season.

Caitlin O’Connor and her company have really made their mark on Peterborough with Evil Dead The Musical. I look forward to see what off-beat production they bring to the Market Hall next. Peterborough’s theatre scene has a lot of room for more unconventional productions like this one.

Just a note of caution about the show’s self-described “splatter zone”, one of the key features of Evil Dead The Musical. As Ash and friends battle the Deadites, stage blood and guts soak the audience members in the first few rows. Audience members who come to the show traditionally dress in white so they can wear the “blood” like a badge after leaving the theatre. For those who delight in this sort of spectacle, it’s a great feature of the show which is tons of fun. But audience members who would much rather avoid being splattered with stage blood will want to get a seat further back from the stage. Otherwise, be sure to dress accordingly and be prepared for the possibility of being doused in demon blood.

Evil Dead The Musical runs for four performances from October 18th to 20th at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte St. E, Peterborough). Shows start at 8 p.m., with a special midnight performance on Friday, October 20th. Advance tickets are $23 general admission ($28 at the door), $18 for students, and $33 for seats in the “splatter zone” (see caution above).

When Igor Stravinsky’s orchestral ballet “The Rite of Spring” premiered in Paris in 1913, it was so ahead of its time that it created scandal and provoked a near-riot in the audience.

Don’t expect either a scandal or a near-riot this Thursday and Friday when Public Energy presents “Nogojiwanong Rite of Spring”, but you can certainly expect something equally unique.

The free outdoor dance performance, choreographed by performance artist Brian Solomon, will bring together more than 20 members of the local community along with professional dance artists, for an Indigenous re-imagining of Stravinsky’s notorious ballet. There are two performances of “Nogojiwanong Rite of Spring”, one on Thursday, October 19th and one on Friday, October 20th, and both begin at 6 p.m.

And what makes “Nogojiwanong Rite of Spring” even more special is that it takes place at a little-known Anishinaabe burial site in downtown Peterborough, near the Brock Street parking lot.

Solomon, who is of Anishinaabe and Irish descent, is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and holds an MA of performance from the Laban Centre in the U.K. Nominated for multiple Gemini and Dora Awards, Solomon has presented his works across Canada, Berlin, Ingolstadt, Bamberg, Amsterdam, and London U.K. He has also taught for several arts institutions and companies, including one of Europe’s foremost universities for acting, H.F.S. Ernst Busch (Berlin).

For the past six weeks, Solomon has been artist in residence at Public Energy in partnership with Trent University. During that time, he has been leading workshops for local community organizations (including Nogojiwanong Friendship Centre, YES Shelter for Youth and Families, LOFT Downtown Youth Space, and New Canadians Centre) and, through the Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies, giving workshops for Trent University students.

He has also been working with more than 20 members of the community — ranging in age from three to over 70 years old — to develop the choreography of “Nogojiwanong Rite of Spring”, with space for weekly workshops and rehearsals being donated by Artspace and Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies.

“It’s very unique to have a dance artist come and spend six weeks in the community developing a performance like this,” says Public Energy’s performance curator Victoria Mohr-Blakeney. “Brian has such a gentle and open teaching style. It really makes people feel comfortable and helps them get into their bodies.”

For his part, Solomon says he’s “passionate about community-engaged arts and helping people relearn about their forgotten bodies, and take back the space those bodies occupy.”

In addition to members of the community, Solomon has also been working with dance artists Mariana Meinke and Whitney Hewitt as well as other performance professionals who will perform in “Nogojiwanong Rite of Spring”.

As for the performance itself, it takes place in the area of the Brock Street Parking Lot, on Brock Street near George Street in downtown Peterborough — on the site of an Anishinaabe burial site.

Through “Nogojiwanong Rite of Spring”, Solomon hopes to both raise awareness about the significance of the site and to honour the site, creating an opportunity to build knowledge and understanding around the history and significance of this place.

The performance will re-envision Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” through a contemporary Indigenous lens, with Stravinsky’s score re-imagined and performed by Melody McKiver (a Two-Spirit Anishinaabe violist, composer, powwow dancer and media artist and member of Obishikokaang Lac Seul First Nation in the Treaty #3 territories in Sioux Lookout).

“The Rite of Spring” is a ballet and orchestral concert choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky and composed by Stravinsky, who was virtually unknown at the time, for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company. When it premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris on May 29, 1913, its avant-garde music and choreography provoked outrage and a near-riot in the audience.

It is now widely considered to be one of the most seminal musical works of the 20th century, influencing jazz, miminalism, and other contemporary movements.

This is not the first time Solomon has staged a community dance re-interpreting “The Rite of Spring”. In 2013, he mounted a similar production, called “South London’s Rite of Spring”, in London, U.K. — on the centenary of the London premiere of the original “The Rite of Spring”.

“I felt that this primordial piece really demanded a cast of all ages and abilities to create a fuller atmosphere for the brutal story of death and sacrifice,” Solomon said of the London performance.

“By bringing together professionals and members of the local community with no prior experience to train together, we have been able to generate something much more powerful and strikingly real.”