TORONTO WINTER CITY

A short blog with a longish video at the end. The last two weeks Toronto has been having its version of a winter festival, called Winter City. Quebec City Carnival it ain't but it's something. This weekend there were a few events happening in Nathan Phillips Square, in front of City Hall. Among them was a performance by a Dutch Theatre troupe who calls themselves Close Act.

We'd been having a week or two of temps in the -25 C range but this weekend it went up to + 9 so it seemed a good idea to go down there. Unfortunately Collette was not feeling well and decided to stay home. Which means no lovely pictures to accompany this post.

At any rate, it was a mild night, the square was packed and I enjoyed myself. The troupe used dance, music, costumes and some imaginative human powered contraptions to tell a little underwater fantasy. Its a love story, really, unrequited love, about a fisherman and a mermaid .. or a horny sailing risking all for some tail. That may be my interpretation.

I tried to scope myself out a bit of elevation from which to shoot, on one side of the square. I didn't realize that the entire square was going to be the "stage" with performers and sets moving about, presenting multiple points of action... which is whiny cameraman speak for "I really picked a stupid place from which to shoot" Still, I think the video will give you some idea of what the show was like.

The video is one of the longest I've post here, over twenty minutes, but that is edited down from a 60 minute performance. An hour of some cool staging, interesting music and some athletically gifted performers .. for free. You can't complain. Well, you could, but that would be a way Canadian thing to do.

So here's the video, and you can consider it me capturing an exotic theatrical street performance .. or a pretty average night in downtown Toronto.


Toronto Winter City Festival from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.