LOVER LOVER to Debut at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival

Lover Lover is a story on an old theme with a new spin. It is a story about unrequited love, but it is also a story about identity, sexuality, polyamory, and about the limitations and possibilities of love. It is a story about two people who cannot fall in love and cannot fall out of love. It is a story full of surprises. This site-specific piece is an intimate conversation between strangers in a public space. At Nightowl, a new and exciting bar in Little Italy, audience members can have a drink and watch the story unfold without feeling guilty for eavesdropping.

This play was written as an exploration of modern romance. The playwright endeavoured to write a play that, stylistically, struck a balance between David Mamet and Annie Baker. The script was workshopped with actors in New York through staged readings and audience discussions. The theatre company itself, Subverting Something, was created with the belief that theatre is the most human of art forms, and that the stories we tell must be truthful and brave. The rehearsal process is rooted in the influential Meisner technique, which focuses on connection between actors, being true to the moment, and acting instinctively. The actors are instructed to focus their attention entirely on each other, rather than on themselves. The writer/director and the two actors all studied different techniques at various schools (Atlantic Conservatory in New York, National Theatre School, and Ryerson University) so coming together under the umbrella of Meisner is new and uncomfortable and exciting. As this is a site-specific show set in a bar, rehearsals are also sometimes held in cafes and bars to acclimate the actors to acting in public. The actors also have to deal with the challenge of improvising parts of the script and reacting to whatever is happening in the room and with the audience at any given moment.

Veronika Gribanova, the writer and director, works and resides in New York, where she is a member of the Atlantic Theatre Company's conservatory ensemble. In Toronto, she has directed Jesse Eisenberg's Asuncion (2016) and Christine Evans' Trojan Barbie (2015). This is the first play she has written that will be staged. The actors, Elizabeth Adams and Erik Mrakovcic, are also entering the professional theatre world. Elizabeth Adams is finishing her theatre training at Ryerson, but she has already been part of the Toronto Fringe and InspiraTO fesitvals. Erik Mrakovcic, since graduating from the National Theatre School, has starred in Tideline at Hart House and Canadian Rep's Dreams directed by Ken Gass, Motherland at Alumnae Theatre, and has been part of InspitaTO and Third Wheel Theatre Festival. Almost all members of the cast and crew have previously been involved in the Toronto Fringe Festival. Last year, Veronika Gribanova, Shashwat Sharma, and Sophie Lewycky worked together on Broadleaf Theatre's Bite-Sized, and Elizabeth Adams was in Green Box Theatre Company's False Start, while Erik Mrakovcic is starrting in two Fringe shows this year (Lover Lover and Motherland).

Lover Lover is a play that unfolds in real time, in real space. Audience members can listen in on private lives in the way that we all yearn to when we're in public, suddenly captivated by a conversation on the street, or in this case, in a bar. The audience will be witness to something heated and unexpected that they can become involved in from a safe distance, perhaps with a drink in hand. This is the story of two lovers who have never met, until now. Allow us to subvert your expectations.

Performances

July 5, 8:00 pm

July 6, 8:00 pm

July 7, 5:30 pm

July 8, 5:30 pm

July 12, 8:00 pm

July 13, 8:00 pm

July 15, 5:30 pm

Please note there is absolutely no latecomer seating.

Tickets: Individual tickets go on sale June 8, 2017.

Purchase online: fringetoronto.com

By Phone: (416) 966-1062

In Person: During the festival at the main box office at the Fringe Club at Scadding Court - 707 Dundas Street West.

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