by AMY BARRATT

Don't look now but there's a theatre festival coming this way. The Festival de Théâtre des Amériques actually touched down last night, May 25, with two openings, and follows them up over the next two weeks with an average of one new opening per day. Featuring innovative theatre, dance and performance art from several corners of the world, the FTA is a biennial rite of spring.

This year's edition features productions from Italy, Iran, Belgium, Lebanon, Egypt and France, as well as quite a few Québécois works and even one from Toronto (now that's exotic). The majority of the shows are in French, although there are a couple in English only, one in both languages and a couple more that have no dialogue. Venues this year include Usine C, the Monument-National, Theatre Prospero and Espace GO.

The sole English Canadian entry in the festival, Half Life, marks the return of Daniel Brooks to our distinct shores. His collaborations with Daniel MacIvor have been seen at Usine C, and his Insomnia was at the FTA in 1998. This time, Brooks is working with Necessary Angel Theatre Company tackling a new play by John Mighton (Possible Worlds).

Half Life was a hit with critics and the public when it premiered at Toronto's Tarragon Theatre in February. Set in a seniors' home, it explores a romance between a couple of octogenarians and the discomfort it causes their offspring. The couple, Clara and Patrick, are played by Carolyn Hetherington and Les Carlson. A familiar stage and screen presence for over three decades, Carlson takes over the role from Eric Peterson, who created it at the Tarragon. Hetherington has become a familiar face these last few years through several appearances at Centaur including an unforgettable turn in The Beauty Queen of Leenane. This past season she appeared as Mrs. Samuel Beckett in Burnt Piano.

The story, which has been called a "Romeo and Juliet in reverse," sounds unusually simple for intellectual heavy-hitter Mighton, but he apparently gets a lot of food for thought in there. The playwright, who is also a mathematician, gets in the art vs. science dichotomy by making Clara's son (Diego Matamoros) a neurologist and Patrick's daughter (Laura de Carteret) a designer. This is Mighton's first play after an eight-year break, and many consider it his best.

Half Life is at Theatre d'Aujourd'hui June 2–4 at 8 p.m. and June 5 at 3 p.m. Tickets ($27–$32) can be found at 871-2224 or 790-1245 or at the theatre box office one hour before performance, subject to availability.

More FTA highlights

Cinema Cielo: the audience sits on the stage at the Monument's Salle Ludger-Duvernay watching the marginal characters who haunt a cinema and former porno palace.

Peepshow: Triple threat Marie Brassard (writer, director, performer) follows up her Jimmy, créature de rêve with another original creation in which she uses technology to transform herself and explore "inner voices."

Looking for a Missing Employee: one of two multimedia productions from Lebanon, Rabih Mroué's text explores presence and absence through the stories of the disappeared, people who cease to exist except in the photographs displayed by desperate relatives.

For more, visit www.fta.qc.ca.

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