The Adventure of Young Turtle, So.Glad Arts at Expanse Festival 2024. Photo supplied.

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

What happens on a long weekend in a theatre town? For starters, a new indie puppet musical and a musical theatre classic, an insightful and captivating comedy about teenage girls, a musical revue, a new play festival.

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•The Adventure of Young Turtle, the new musical for kids (five-plus) and their grown-up friends that launches the 19th annual edition of Azimuth Theatre’s Expanse Festival, creates an imaginative undersea coral reef playground (designed by Even Gilchrist and lighted by Amberlin Hsu) for its cast of queer puppet characters. And they’re all fashioned, with considerable flair and ingenuity, from recycled castaway stuff — old hoses and juice containers, bottle caps and take-out containers, plastic cutlery, umbrellas, and an impressive quantity of bubblewrap.

The questing hero in the heartwarming queer coming-of-age story created by playwright S.E. Grummett, in a So.Glad Arts production directed by Jay Northcott, is a turtle, played by a human in a backpack shell and fins. Played by the endearing Logan Stefura, our youthful turtle is having an identity crisis. Bullied as a landlubber by the fantastical sea creatures in their world, they’re confused by all the ways they “feel different inside.” Try as they might to fit in, they’re an outsider, perpetually apprehensive in their own world: they’re just not like their big strong can-do bro or their helpful domesticated sis. Boy? Girl? None of the usual binary pronouns seem to be right.

In the course of their first migration, when they lose track of their family and find themself alone in the big wide ocean, Young Turtle has a series of encounters with strangers, who invariably turn out to be more than their appearance or our hero’s ingrained expectations. And they’re expressively manipulated and voiced by a team of performers — Ali Deregt, Émanuel Dubbeldam, Oli Guselle.

The fearsome-looking shark, for example, feels misunderstood too (“I am more than my last meal”), and regularly pretends to be a dolphin so others won’t flee.  The moray eel, an inspired creation who’s had a lifetime of repelling other creatures, with attendant anxiety issues, is habitually leery of meeting strangers. And they have helpful advice for Young Turtle about being brave, in a soulful ballad. “Maybe being brave is being true to yourself.” A drag-inspired cuttlefish with neon light-up moves, advises “don’t hide your colours tonight,” in a go-for-the-gusto disco number. The inventive score created by Rae Spoon and Ruaridh MacDonald is sung with varying degrees of success by the versatile performers.

It’s fun, it’s light, Grummett’s text is witty, the puppets are delightful. And the theatrical spirit-lifting message to marginalized kids that whoever they are they’ve got friends and don’t have to swim alone is important without being heavy-finned. Times being what they are in the prairies, where ever-escalating political grandstanding punishes trans and queer kids, the show is particularly welcome. Kudos to Expanse.

The Adventure of Young Turtle runs through April 4 at the Expanse Festival (various times). Check out 12thnight’s preview interview with theatre artist S.E. Grummett here. And 12thnight’s Expanse preview here. The full Expanse schedule of events, including Friday and Saturday’s curated dance: azimuththeatre.com. All tickets are pay-what-you-can. In advance: fringetheatre.ca.  

If you’ve been waiting for this long weekend to venture out to the theatre, it’s your last chance to …

Larissah Lashley, Abigail McDougall, Jayce McKenzie, Hayley Moorhouse in Robot Girls, Shadow Theatre. Photo by Marc J Chalifoux.

… see Robot Girls, Shadow Theatre’s premiere production of the funny and touching Trevor Schmidt comedy about four junior high girls who join the science club to create a robot for an international competition. Its delights are many. For one thing, the cast, directed jointly by John Hudson and Lana Michelle Hughes, is one of the perfectly meshed ensembles of the season. Through Sunday at the Varscona Theatre. Tickets: shadowtheatre.org. Have a peek at 12thnight’s review here.

Priya Narine (centre) in The Sound of Music, Citadel Theatre/ Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. Photo by Nanc Price.

… see The Sound of Music at the Citadel, the only production in recent memory without Alp projections (those of us in the Shoctor seats are the mountains). The kids in Rachel Peake’s production are particularly delightful. The 12thnight review is here. Through Sunday. Tickets: citadeltheatre.com, 780-425-1820.

… catch Workshop West Playwrights Theatre’s Springboards New Play Festival. The staged readings are your chance to see what goes on behind the scenes, as plays at every stage of evolution get developed en route to full production and opening night. Friday night it’s Summer Solstice by Collin Doyle, Saturday it’s The Resurrection of Dottie Reed, and Sunday night’s finale, the Springboards cabaret, includes excerpts of new scripts from beginner playwrights and star veterans like George F. Walker. All tickets are pay-what-you-can. In advance at workshopwest.org. The 12thnight preview, with annotations by WWPT’s artistic producer Heather Inglis, is here.

… catch a dinner, drinks, and Elvis as the Mayfield wraps up the run of One Night With The King Sunday.  It’s now or never for Matt Cage’s performance, with the celebrated repertoire to match. Next up? Grease.  Tickets: mayfieldtheatre.ca.