This summer on the Canadian Fringe festival circuit, Acky-Made (WOOL, 2006 and The Fugue Code, 2007) presents its third original show...

Old Growth is a unique, bold and charming play about vision, madness, and real environmental responsibility in a time of greenwashing and limitless economic growth.  Taking place on the Queen Charlotte Islands, BC, the show blends fact and fiction, magic, music and storytelling...  



Their story alternates with two other “branches”: the story of Hadwin’s collision with a tree that the Haida believed was a human being; and their trial performance of the “Envirologues” – short magical/musical monologues through which Alex plans to bring his big-picture environmental message to Canadians.  But he has chosen a thorny path...how far will Aura follow?

Old Growth contains live music for flute (Aura Giles, an emerging flutist), and hand percussion (Alex Eddington, an accomplished composer).  Some of the music is Eddington’s, but most was developed through improvisation – and is left open for spontaneous musical play in performance...     

The direction is naturalistic, with no recorded sound design, and only a “natural” lighting shift – from early evening to dusk.  But Alex and Aura’s ritual is “performed,” with their makeshift stagecraft including camping lanterns and sleight-of-hand magic (Alex is a “Bar Mitzvah conjuror”) with everyday objects: sponges, coins, newspapers, chewing gum, rubber bands, water, light...