Now that the holiday season is behind us, and the frigid winter seems unending, the fine folks of Ottawa might be asking—is there any way to see engaging, hilarious, captivating, bilingual performances?!
Never fear, for the 15th year, the undercurrents festival is here to soothe all your local theatre needs.
“We’re very excited to be celebrating 15 years,” says Alain Richer, executive and artistic director of the Ottawa Fringe Festival, and the undercurrents Festival. “The festival has really changed shape over the years with the types of works that we’ve seen on stage and have been able to support and present.”
Richer says that as of 2023, the festival has been bilingual, and has seen a steady growth of French and francophone performances. Now, it’s about 50-50 between French and English productions.
“One of the things that we were trying to find space for is bilingual work,” says Richer. “In Canada, there’s a lot of shows that exist in both languages—whether the performer can perform in English one night and in French the other, or that the show is actually bilingual where they’re speaking equivalent French and English during the performance.”
Image from Daddy’s Issues. Photo provided.
This year, two works embrace this duality—Angle Mort or Blindside, which will have two performances, one in each language, and Daddy’s Issues, which is completely bilingual.
“What’s exciting about having it be a bilingual festival is that it’s truly bilingual,” says Richer. “You don’t need to be fluent in French to be able to come see a French show because we offer English captions to those performances.”
Richer says that because of the audiences who attend Undercurrents in Ottawa, most people are either bilingual or Anglophone—very few are Francophone and cannot speak English. So, according to audience feedback, the festival has worked to offer English captions to French shows rather than French captions to English shows.
Not only are there theatrical performances to enjoy, but several art exhibits as well.
For the first time last year, undercurrents started an art exhibit that has now transformed into a partnership with Capital Pride and the Ottawa Trans Library showcasing over 50 artists from the community.
Scene from Revelations. Photo by Griffin McInnes.
Since the information was circulated, the interest and excitement has been overwhelming.
“The call-out was done in conjunction with Capital Pride and the Ottawa Trans Library to essentially have [the exhibits] be community-based—so if you are an artist in the community, submit your work, we will accept it and find space for it. That has been the approach,” says Richer.
This means that what was started as a one-room gallery has now exploded into three rooms of gallery across the third floor of Arts Court.
“People will be able to really take in art in multiple spaces around the festival while they’re attending theatre, or while they’re visiting the building, that is really uplifting trans, BIPOC and 2SLGBTQAI+ artists in the community.”
Scene from She, Man, and the Giant F*cking Snake. Photo provided.
On Feb. 11, undercurrents will be performing something called “New Play Tuesday”, something that existed long before Richer’s tenure as artistic and executive director.
Every second Tuesday of the festival has been dubbed “New Play Tuesday” which features staged readings of new works where you can check out excerpts from playwrights and the pieces they’re working on.
“This year, we have works from four artists–three of them are English, one of them will be French with English captions–and that is in partnership with Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Theatre, which is a professional theatre company here is Ottawa,” says Richer.
Richer is excited for audiences to come and see some of the performances coming to the Arts Court, and can’t wait to expose new art and artists to the Ottawa stage.
Catherine Archambault in Le Téton Tardif. Photo provided.
“The team spends a lot of time carefully selecting works that are either not being done in Ottawa at other theatre companies, or bringing artists to Ottawa what we haven’t seen in the city before,” he says. “I’m very excited when someone comes to these shows and walks out and they’re like, ‘I didn’t know what to expect, and this was incredible.’”
With all of the excitement, Richer also mentioned the uncertainty for the future of this festival.
“Over the last five years of the festival, excluding the pandemic, ticket sales have kind of plateaued, and so audiences aren’t growing,” he says. “Meaning some shows are doing well, and others aren’t doing as well. We’re really at a crossroads for this festival.”
Richer says one of the best ways to help make a positive impact is to come out and support the festival.
“We hear from many people how important this festival is to them and to the arts community,” he says. “But for it to continue existing as is, we need people to support it. And so, that’s really the call-in that we’re doing this year, is to have people come and attend the festival and make that effort in the cold February in Ottawa to come see this work.”
Check out the undercurrents festival from Feb. 6-15 at the Arts Court. Tickets are pay-what-you-choose from $10, $20 or $50. You can purchase tickets online or in person at the Box Office on the third floor at 2 Daly Avenue. You can also email the Box Office at BoxOffice@ottawafringe.ca or call them at 613-232-6162. For more information about shows and their schedule, visit the undercurrents website.
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