Word-plays

by VINCENT TINGUELY

The play's the thing during SoloFest at the MAI theatre, but you can also catch the cream of Montreal's spoken word scene at the MAI café. First up, Corey Frost performs "Tales of Genji," Oct. 26, 28. This "postmodern discourse collage" combines the sex romp narrative of a 1,000-year-old Japanese novel with comments on the relative merits of poetry and death. Then on Oct. 27 and Nov. 2, Victoria Stanton cooks up a politically potent potpourri drawn from "Split," an hour-long spoken word show. She stitches everything together with a chunk of discarded scrap metal that's more musical than it looks.

On Nov. 3, Mitsiko Miller honours the bilingual mix of SoloFest with English and French spoken word pieces, and a bit of improv if she's in the mood. She promises to wear sunglasses after dark while delivering "nice and goofy" ironic jabs at current cultural mores and values.

Finally, wordist Catherine Kidd and soundist Jack Beets present two new pieces drawn from Kidd's novel Bestial Rooms (Nov. 4). "Global Warming" blends personal relationship meltdowns with terrestrial apocalypse and drives the point home with an inflatable version of Munch's "The Scream." Using a funky, greasy bass line in a Grimm's fairy tale stylee, "Tale of the Horse Leech" takes on our culture of rampant over-consumption. At 3680 Jeanne-Mance, all spoken word shows start at 9:15 p.m.

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