Probability. From left to right: Rami Kahlon, Alexandra Voicu, Rachel Renau, Marissa Burton. Photo credit: Patricia Trinh
By Elizabeth Holliday
@femme.path
What Patricia Trinh calls the ripple effect is a daily occurrence that is both magic and mundane. It’s a theme that the actor, writer, and director has always been captivated by, and the centre of Probability: her multimedia, multidisciplinary play going up in the 2018 rEvolver Festival.
“You make little choices and it effects your life on a grander scale that you don’t realize until it’s actually happening,” says Trinh. With the premiere of Probability comes the launch of Dusty Foot Productions, Trinh’s multidisciplinary, female-centric theatre company. In wondering what theatre in the 21st century can be, Trinh birthed Dusty Foot; a company that seeks to make the kind of theatre that bridges artistic disciplines and communities to tell stories we know in ways we’ve never seen.
With a cast of four actors performing two characters, Probability explores the division of the external Ego Self and the internal Higher Self through two women navigating an intimate relationship. Though exploring a queer story line, Trinh is firm that the themes are applicable to any romantic encounter. “The importance is that it’s not important,” she says, centering her intention to normalize queer stories. The pieces’ natural development has complicated the universality of the content slightly, gearing it “towards more of a female relationship.” “I struggled with that in the rehearsal process,” Trinh shares, “how do we still honour and give voice to that it is two women but not make it about that?” Taking the Ego and Higher Selves of these women, Probability gives “a literal voice and body to each characters’ subtext,” and explores the possible directions their relationship could go after first meeting; “the what if and the not knowing and the grey area in between certainty.”
Trinh came to Probability through a journey of artistic doubt and self-discovery. Trained at the University of Victoria, she struggled after graduation to find pieces that really drove her; “I wasn’t in the time and place to really […] search for it, and being of colour too and being a female, I went through a kind of crisis of ‘why am I still doing this?’” After a 10-month backpacking trip, she returned to Vancouver with a fresh perspective on her passion. “Now that I’ve settled into myself, I’ve realized that as an artist it’s so important to be able to dip your toes into all sorts of different elements […] and I actually rediscovered my own joy by starting to write and direct,” she explains.
As a multidisciplinary artist, the body is central to Trinh’s work, and inextricable from her directorial process. “I’m really drawn to movement,” Trinh tells Loose Lips, “I’m fascinated by that sweet spot where words fail us and shar[ing] a story through a movement vocabulary.” Though Probability is foremost a text-based show, words and movement are only two pieces of its disciplinary puzzle. The production includes digital projections, shadow play, and no set. This combination of disciplines speaks to Trinh’s understanding that everyone has a different way of interpreting the world. “I think it’s important to honour that in art,” she says, “if you’re not a text based person, I’m showing it to you through movement or somehow stimulating you through visuals, [so you can still be] affected by the same story.”
By using multimedia approaches to productions like Probability, Trinh hopes simultaneously to create and provide opportunities for more female writers, female directors, stronger female roles. “I have personally experience[d] a lack of representation in Theatre as an Asian Canadian, a queer, a woman,” Trinh explains, “I think that’s why this is the appropriate time to launch a female-centric company. There is a shift in the frequency around the world; women are banding together to support one another’s worth […] With Dusty Foot Productions, I want to offer a safe space to build such a collective.”
By provid[ing] a space to explore important and universal questions, Probability and Dusty Foot will no doubt have ripple effects of their own.
Now in its fifth year, rEvolver Festival is the latest iteration of Upintheair Theatre’s long history of festival production. rEvolver focuses on giving professional opportunities to emerging artists of a range of theatrical practices. Hosted at the Cultch, the 2018 festival runs from May 23—June 3, and features 14 productions as well as staged readings. Grab your tickets to Probability and other productions here.
Elizabeth is a writer, actor, and full-time nerd living on Unceded Coast Salish Territories. With a BA in Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice, she is passionate about media that challenges norms, beliefs, and mainstream representation. You can find her listening to true crime podcasts and trying to find good places to dance (she’ll take recommendations).
