Even before the two-hour play began you were listening to music that reminded you of being in a car on a road trip. The dial changing halfway through some songs, to the news, to full songs, then back to that previous song. Songs like “Life is a Highway” by Tom Cochrane or “End of the World” by Great Big Sea, foreshadowing the journey that was about to be told.
Fortune of Wolves is written by St. Thomas graduate Ryan Griffith and directed by Thomas Morgan Jones. The play is a suspenseful sci-fi, mystery, apocalyptic adventure with some comedic monologue.
Featuring the acting talents of Carlos Gonzalez-Vio, Graham Percy, Kimwun Perehinec, and Michaela Washburn, the play is filled with vivid descriptions from the many colorful characters the actors bring to life. People are vanishing and we don’t know why or how. Is it running away, kidnapping, or something otherworldly? Sparse information and cryptic signs allow your imagination to fill in the blanks for what is happening.
The play follows the journey of a man and his tape recorder as he travels through the provinces of Canada, the original destination changing with each place he visits. He meets new people and old friends along the way.
The stage its self is also used as a prop, different compartments holding different objects to symbolize the weather elements of the four seasons. All four actors always remain onstage but if they are not speaking they retreat to the background making movements that have to do with the monologue being said.
At the end of each show, they roll the die to see what characters will be in the next play and tell the story. There are particular characters that are in every show, but the presentation shifts. Monologues are broken down into months (13) and then characters and their monologues are numbered 1-6 (sometimes fewer) then the die is rolled to see the format of the next play.
“We have to recognize that there is plot and there is story and those are actually different things, so in this case all the permanent monologues are what deliver plot and then all of the dozens and dozens and dozens of variations create a different story. So, every night you see a different story, but every night you get the same plot,” said director Thomas Morgan Jones about the structure of the play.
No two plays will be the same. The fate is in the die.
Wolves will be playing at Open Space Theatre in Fredericton from Oct. 12 to 22 then on tour from Oct. 24 to 30.
