Three
OPENING NIGHT AND GHOSTS
by Sara Rodriguez
Photos by Jody Burkholder
NOW we’re excited! Show opened, great reactions and super reviews so far. The Metro, the Coast and The Chronicle Herald have given Paradise Lost two thumbs up. It even said, “it’d be a sin to miss Paradise Lost”. We couldn’t be more thrilled. There was even a standing ovation and full house tonight. We feel very lucky to have had good audiences for our first few shows, let’s just hope they keep coming.
Our days so far are spent visiting Halifax and going to other fringe shows. We went to Point Pleasant Park, visited the Citadel, and got a tour of the largest Titanic graveyard where we saw the grave of J. Dawson. Much to our disappointment, the “J” did not stand for Jack (like in James Cameron’s movie Titanic) but of Joseph Dawson who was a worker on the boat. Thanks to Mr. Cameron, this grave is littered with roses from love struck Leo fans, giving poor Joe Dawson more attention in death than he ever had in life.
Since Paul’s birthday was on our opening night, we decided to postpone the official birthday dinner until the following day. As per his request, he was treated to a lobster dinner at the Five Fishermen, a well-known Halifax restaurant known for its fish and seafood dishes but honestly, we really wanted to go there because the building is haunted and we were hoping to see a ghost. The building was once a morgue where victims from both the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and the Halifax explosion in 1917 were taken. After our delicious meal, I was washing my hands in the ladies room, I looked up at the mirror in front of me and noticed a woman walking in with her child. Naturally, I smiled at her; she smiled back and they went into a stall. Just as I exited the washroom, I realized I’d left my purse hanging in the other stall. I went back to get it only to discover that both bathroom stalls were empty and there was no sign of the woman and the little girl. Needless to say, I was a little spooked and ran back to join the gang. When we asked our server, Zoe, about the restaurant’s haunted reputation, we were told that most of the staff refuses to close the restaurant by themselves, due to cutlery moving on it’s own, while others had quit after being slapped in the face by an unseen hand. Zoe also told us that the women’s washroom is where a little girl ghost is often sighted. Apparently many custumers return from the ladies room to report a little girl in there crying for her mother. I didn’t mention that I noticed her mother had found her for fear of bringing the ghost home with me…
After the spook fest we decided to head over to the Plutonium Playhouse to watch a play about a barnacle. That’s right. Atlantic Fringe’s own Thom Fitzgerald wrote a ten-minute solo installation piece about a barnacle. It was totally worth the money. And only two dollars! Apparently Barnacles have the largest penis per body mass than any other animal!! Wow! Science is sexy! We walked out of studio B and into the main stage to watch Dr. Brown Becaves. A play about…not quite sure what it was about but I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard for sixty minutes straight. It was an awkward mime piece involving audience participation. If you sat in the front row, chances were you would be part of the show. And guess who sat in the front row? We did. Jody became a crucial part of the show. He was slapped and ridiculed on stage, forced to translate Dr. Brown’s Japanese-like gibberish, climb inside the artifice of the doctor’s birth canal, and for the final bow both Jody and Paul had to carry his sweaty naked body offstage. Paul also had his share of “fun” on stage; his pants were pulled down in a mock fellatio bit, was slapped hard in the face, and had to lift Jody, which subsequently left him with a great deal of back pain the following day.
Oh what will tomorrow bring! More great shows? More ghosts? More sweaty naked people? One can only hope!
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