by AMY BARRATT

One evening last week, a motley crew of Montreal actors, musicians and one whistling juggler staged a cabaret fundraiser for The Girl With No Hands.

This girl’s father cut off her hands because, he claims, the devil told him to. Sounds like one of those gruesome but riveting stories you see on the evening news, doesn’t it?

In fact, The Girl With No Hands is a Grimm fairy tale. The fundraiser was for writer-actor Talya Rubin’s upcoming solo play inspired by the story.

Rubin is a native Montrealer who has travelled extensively and recently moved back here after seven years in Australia. Her first solo play, Ariadne’s Thread, was born of a “self-imposed exile” on the Greek island of Santorini. That show had already been seen in Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia, as well as in Prague by the time Rubin brought it to last year’s Montreal Fringe. It was picked up by the Centaur for a run in their annual Wildside Festival.

Rubin describes coming across the Grimm story while browsing in a bookstore. “The book caught my eye and when I picked it up it fell open to this story,” she says. “The imagery resonated with me for some reason and I couldn’t get it out of my head.”

After her father cuts off her hands, the girl goes wandering. She ends up in the garden of a King, who fashions her a pair of silver hands.

“I didn’t want to just tell what is really a dark and twisted tale,” says Rubin. “In doing the show, I’m trying to work out what’s underneath it for me. I’ve decided that the Girl is an untrustworthy narrator who sometimes has hands and sometimes not.”

For this new piece, Rubin has teamed up with Jodi Essery, who in addition to writing for a certain rival weekly, is a theatre practitioner in her own right, notably with SaBooge. That company’s founding members all studied at the Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris; Rubin had worked with a man in Australia who studied under Lecoq in the ’60s. When she returned to Montreal, she was looking to hook up with other artists working in a “devised” method. As I understand it, this means that while there is something written down before rehearsals begin, the text is allowed to grow and change, mainly through improvisation, with input from all parties.

One element Rubin is exploring through the fairy tale is the idea of not being able to tell your own story. “I think it’s something that a lot of people can relate to,” she says. “It’s easy to let go of the thing we really need to hold on to, out of a fear of presenting who we really are to the world.”

Speaking of fundraisers

The infringement festival is throwing itself a party tonight, May 25, and you’re all invited. “Absurdist jazz-rock duo the Pamplemousse Explosion and Montreal poet and musician Francis Halin are joined by beat-boxers, circus freaks, the world-famous Dead Doll Dancers and more in a celebration of the right to infringe.” This pay-what-you-can event is at the Bishop Street Pub (1222 Bishop) at 9 p.m.

The Girl with No Hands will be at Fringe Venue 3, the Geordie Space (4001 Berri, #103) opening June 9 at 6 p.m. For the full schedule, visit www.montrealfringe.ca.

>> Stage Listings