Created by Vivid Strokes Collective
Produced by Vivid Strokes Collective | Ottawa, ON
Review by Samara Caplan and Laura Gauthier
14+ / Drama, Mystery
The road to the afterlife starts at… a bus stop?
Catarina meets a curious stranger while waiting for her bus and quickly finds things are not what they seem. Her phone doesn’t work, she’s sweating when the day called for rain and her bus seems like it will never come. The mysterious stranger knows more than they are letting on and is there to transition her to the afterlife.
Stuck in limbo, she refuses to cross over and fears anything but standing still. As she grapples with her complicated relationships, family dynamics and the ghosts of her past she questions all the choices she’s made in life, not knowing what it will bring her in death.
Image for At Death’s Door. Photo provided.
Simple staging is used to transition between locations and times, past and present. The actors leverage silence to build tension, discomfort and replicate the realities of processing grief in moments of realization. Contrastingly, they use sound to build a deeper world and stories you don’t get to see, but can hear.
A thoughtful look at the importance of culture in death and connection and the power of carrying guilt, At Death’s Door explores how sometimes the only way forward is to reach the end.
At Death’s Door is playing at DARC Microcinema from June 13–22. Tickets are $14 plus service fees at the Fringe box office (3rd floor, Arts Court, 2 Daly Avenue), and at the three satellite box offices (LabO in the Ottawa Art Gallery, Fringe Courtyard, 67 Nicholas St and La Nouvelle Scène). Five and ten Show Passes are also available. Visit the Ottawa Fringe Festival’s website for the show’s schedule and check out their online schedule here.
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