BUFFALO GIRLS: REMIX (2015-2019)

A play about colonization, extinction and queer desire.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Dawn Petten in The Frank Theatre workshop of Buffalo Girls, 2015

IN DEVELOPMENT

 Buffalo Girls: Remix has seen development workshops produced by Frank Theatre with the workshop directed by Diane Roberts, with Tasha Faye Evans, Dawn Petten and Marci T. House. The writing of Buffalo Girls: Remix has been supported by both the BC Art Council and the Canada Council. The development of the script has been supported by the Playwright’s Theatre Centre  and by She Said Yes Theatre’s , Mail Order Dramaturgy program. 

SYNOPSIS

Extinction threatens.

 Trapped in a failing three-ring circus stranded on the plains, three mannish women gamble on fantasies of escape. Absurdist comedy, cabaret and circus collide in a play that attempts to resurrect the dead, save rare beasts from extinction and to question our human ability to deal with freedom should it be delivered to us.

Inspired by the stories of queer and queerish women from British Columbia history and set in a dystopian landscape of the western plains, we find these three mannish women performing as freaks of nature in a seedy circus, doing acts whose entertainment value is questionable at best. During the day the women perform their circus acts and by night, they plot their escape. As they prepare to attempt a break-out, they are sidetracked by fantasy, alcohol and gambling, by each other, by melancholy and doubt, and of course by the ringmaster, who needs the women in order for the circus to survive. The weathers are turning, unprecedented rains are lifting the very ground beneath their feet, if they do escape, how will they survive and where would they possibly be welcome?