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Brave new waveTomboy: A Band of the Future is an
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by JACK OATMON Part theatrical dance performance, part electro band, part audiovisual installation, Tomboy: A Band of the Future is a stage show set in a post-apocalyptic dystopia. The brainchild of Montreal multidisciplinary artists Melissa Weigel (aka Maliboo Mel) and Pamela Schneider (aka Pam Rocks), the show aims to bring the audience into the story of a group of outcasts making art by scavenging technology and banned cultural documents from the ruined outskirts of a totalitarian city state, ravaged by rampant AIDS mutations, virus-determined caste systems and retroviral drug dependencies. It also features local artists Matt Williston, A-Rock, Benjamin Read and input by numerous others. Schneider and Weigel are senior members of audiovisual collective Moment Factory and founders of former St-Dominique art space the Nest, and have also worked with Cirque du Soleil and Nine Inch Nails, and performed alongside Afrika Bambaataa and Bob Sinclar. The Mirror spoke to Weigel and Schneider about Tomboy. Pamela Schneider: We wanted the content of the show to be pertinent to ideas that concern us, and global issues. Melissa Weigel: But we also wanted it to be fun and entertaining, because we like to avoid formal presentations and do stuff in a social environment. Either installation, or something where the audience participates in one way or another. PS: Mel, being from South Africa, brought forth how rapidly AIDS was being spread there, and the attention of the media everywhere we were travelling with work was so far away from that. But it’s something that was so present in our lives as kids. MW: Growing up in South Africa, you’re told that one in three people have AIDS and someone’s dying every minute. But I was like, I know a lot of people, and I don’t know of anybody that has AIDS. Is it because they’re not saying anything, they don’t know, or because society’s so divided that it hasn’t jumped that imaginary border? It’s still that kind of logic that it doesn’t affect us. It’s always that feeling that it’s about somebody else. Mirror: So wanting to engage people with these ideas translates into the desire for an interactive show? MW: Yeah. It’s always an experiment, that kind of thing, and we’re really interested in site-specific work and trying to immerse people. PS: One of the issues that has come forth in our story is that, in a lot of societies, people become segregated and don’t interact with each other or they’re stigmatized for their disease or whatever it is and that creates lines and divisions amongst people, which abolishes community. And once community is abolished, authority takes over. That’s what our story is saying, somewhat. Community is stronger than everything else, but if you lose that, everything will break apart. MW: It’s very in-depth and the audience might not get all this right away, but everybody that’s creating and working on the show has a really strong vision and we’ve tried to make it as detailed as possible so we can omit certain details from the performance. We’re not going to stand there and read the script of what’s going on. And it’s always evolving. PS: That’s why the long-term project is so interesting. We’d like it to eventually culminate in a full-length musical where people will understand the whole story. AT MUSÉE JUSTE POUR RIRE, 5TH |
