Red Paper - A Queer Ghost Story

Red Paper - A Queer Dark Comedy about Rejecting Tradition, and Embracing the Inevitable.

Hello All!

As we near the dawning of a new edition of The St Ambroise Fringe Festival (2023!) and I'm absolutely both mortified and thrilled to announce our newest show, my brainchild and all-around cognition baby: Red Paper. It's a new show that represents a ghostly Queer reclamation of power, agency and toilet humour. It's a darkly funny show about Rhetoric, Punditry and Consequence.

It's a show that's particularly important to me. As a queer author, it expresses the fear, hostility and anxiety one must engage when sharing the online space with fascism, bigotry and unchecked hatred. However, this show does not simply explore this space in resigned defeatism. This is a story of facing these horrors head-on, and most importantly, to laugh at them.

Laura Rossiter, Aidan Cottreau and Kerrin-Lee Whyte photo by Alex Cote

Activism and Art

This show encompasses the strength of Queer online cultures, embodying the nature of post-gender naturalism in the face of a dying dystopic binary. These strengths are that of a humour darkly, observing the absurdity of mainstream conservatism and the slow death march of gradual change in the face of legislative violence. The result is our laughing at its ineffectual hilarity, its inevitable failure, while still presenting a call to action for mutual aid and protection for Queer communities.

The show is particularly important to me as a Non-Binary artist with a conservative family, as it explores the incoherence of the radicalizing rhetoric of the Far-Right. Increasingly defined by scorn and needless cruelty, the justification behind said prejudice becomes more and more incoherent with every passing day. This show is very much about the Alt-Right's incomprehensible messaging and the consequences that follow.

The show is a black, horror-comedy involving four actors, two directors and projection art.

Laura Rossiter, Aidan Cottreau Photo by Alex Cote

Synopsis:

Red Paper is a Queer Ghost Story about Milo, a Far-Right pundit trapped on the toilet by a Queer Demon and the Hungry Ghosts of Milo's past. Inspired by the Japanese Urban Legend of Aka Monto, the Demon offers Milo two options: Red Paper or Blue Paper: both spelling certain doom. It's an absurdist play using storytelling, choreography, and most importantly, humour as we tour the surrounding rhetorical pitfalls of Milo's mind, as well as, and most importantly, of the Voices of those Milo has crossed.

While many figures would have us believe that we owe the Far Right a debate and/or dismantling of arguments, this show aims to defang the very nature of the kind of entitlement that would lead a sad man with a camera to sit behind a table that reads "Change My Mind". I cannot underscore the importance of this piece as it aims to present an alternative narrative to television screens presenting white cis-men philosophizing at or against trans peoples. The show presents the opposite, as the voices that haunt us via the tv screen are flipped, reversed and emanate from the toilet upon a time most vulnerable need to be heard more than ever.

Rehearsals will take place between April and May, to be presented between June 8th to the 18th, in Montreal.

Aidan Cottreau, Kerrin-Lee Whyte, photo by Alex Cote

I'm fundraising here because I believe that the artists I'm working with deserve the best tools and materials we can supply. As of this moment, I am currently funding the show directly, and as it stands I would greatly appreciate the help!

This 1500$ will go to cover:

Equipment Rental (Lighting)

Costume Material

Props

Set elements

Expert Fees (Photography, Projection Design, Sound Design)

Rehearsal space rental

Rehearsal, Production Materials (First aid, Tape, Script prints)

Donors will have their name presented in the program, as well as a special thanks post on social media.

Thanks again for helping us make amazing art, we'll see you at the fringe!

Red Paper features Queer voices and people of colour within it's cast and crew.

We appreciate the help to make their vision a reality, to help them feel seen, and to encourage and to help foster a positive community.

Tokens of our appreciation: