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Searching for love@last.com >> Sarah Carlsen is smitten by technology
So says actress-playwright Sarah Carlsen about getting audiences on your side. Accordingly, Carlsen gave us a gift at the Fringe-for-all last week: the image of a dozen business executives completely engrossed in their Fisher Price Activity Centres. The delight of recognition was palpable throughout the smoke-filled room. Carlsen wrote and stars in love@last.com, a play about the relationship between people and technology. The recent Concordia grad plays Katey, a young woman with a certain childlike quality. "When you see a child playing with a tea set," Carlsen explains, "they're there, one hundred per cent--even though they could shift their attention to something else the next second. This character can still do that. Whatever's in front of her, she believes in that." Just as the executives with the Activity Centres illustrated that a laptop computer isn't all that different from the toy you played with in your crib, Carlsen sees a correlation between our beliefs and hopes about new technologies and a childhood belief that your toys get up and dance when you're not looking. And far from being anti-technology, Carlsen admits to succumbing to its appeal: "I'm as attracted to technology as I was to my favourite toys when I was little." The production is directed by Sasha Wentges, co-founder of the Mea Culpa collective, who most recently directed Pinter's The Dumb Waiter at infinitheatre. Carlsen is determined to make theatre that invites the audience in."In a lot of conventional theatre, there's too much of a wall there," she says. "Whereas when I go to theatre I'm looking for that feeling of enjoying the experience with a roomful of others." It's that enjoyment she hopes to give to audiences at the Fringe. So treat yourself. --Amy Barratt |
"You've got to give them a present."