— Arts and Entertainment

WENEY ) ih N@THING IND yu

A do-it-yourself graveyard scavenger hunt by K and A

K: Here we are Harolding in the graveyard, and
though there is no straightforward sense of art
in this yard, I like to consider graveyards as eter-
nal exhibits of death. It may sound sacrilegious,
but when you think about it, headstones are the
last memento that we leave on earth—if that’s
not art, I just don’t know what is.

A: K, you are wise beyond your years that still
mount. There is so much life here in the grave-
yard tonight amidst our scavenger hunt
(suddenly I realize that this whole thing is so
Scooby Doo). We’ve just taken a dozen or so of
our closest friends and set them loose upon a
dark graveyard in search of:

1) The youngest death.
2) The person who lived the longest.
3) Someone born on your birthday and some-
one who died on your birthday.
4) Someone born on today’s date and someone
who died on today’s date.
5) The best epitaph.
6) The most tragic headstone.
7) The largest family site.
' 8) The most haunted grave.
9) The strangest name.
10) The person with the name closest to your
own.

I hear my friend laugh blocks away, and wonder
es this place isn’t crowded with others like
...Harolding around (sorry to step on yout

toes, K):

K: Um, no problem, A. I’d forgive just about

anything right now. I just moved an unlit candle
from a headstone while you were writing, and I
feel a bit faint. After that, in a brave, heroic
effort, I ventured forth into the darkness and
found someone who was born in 1876. Besides
the fact that they’re dead, the idea that someone

who was born more than a century ago is lying

below the earth that I stand on is surreal at best,
fucking horror-movie creepy at worst.

A: Yeah, I just saw a grave of a woman born in
1901, died in 1986, next to a completely blank

 

headstone. There is a place here waiting for
whom? Where is this guy that she’s waiting for?
What is he doing now? Is he coming (or going)

 

BOX OFFICE:
604-523-2877

OTHERPRESS

 

Burr Theatre, in the
days left to watch af
tivating. The
an invigorati

distress, a vampire-slayer, blood

 

and they don’t fail to impress.

Set at Dr. Seward’s “Home
tor Jonathon Harker (Jason E
failing career with a blockbust
who depends on his stars Lue

CHS TR

i

   
  
   

yduction that pleasantly skews ihe convention-
al tale, mixing in film noir, mystery, and comedy, while still
adhering to what makes all dramas work——compassion and fear.
The traditional story of Dracula—i

attfully complicated by a dream s
detailed script. The show’s Success
formances of the ensemble cast.a

(Dean Wunsch) to deliver perfo:
creepy asylum. Mina Holmwood (Kerri Ni
and Lucy, fearing that she’s next, hires Detective Abe ng
(Murray Price). To make matters worse, Renfield (Mark Carter), a

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at all? Also, this is the grave of zombie key
#1...holy cow.

K: Seriously, there is an actual zombie key in this
yard. If you turn it they will come. (Christ, that’s
the second. time that I've referenced. Field of
Dreams.in thtee days—I have a problem.)

" (Pause for some rough but bisa apeeding on

the grass.)

A: So all in all the scavenger hunt may not have
been successful: (I didn’t find anything from the
list) and now I feel bruised and broken. But I’m
leaving the graveyard full of Spiele

K: Bpinhatien can be strangely bemiiift in the
yard of the dead. With a mission to disturb me,
Simon Paul Little led me to a colourful grave
that held two babies under the ground. I stared
at the little stuffed bears, elephants, and flowers
that decorated the headstones as Simon told me
that he once saw the parents of the deceased
watering the soil that grows their children. It
shouldn’t scare us, but it does. Did you see the
neon cross that glows into the graveyard from
across the street, A?

A: I must admit that there was so much going
on that I missed the glowing cross, but I did feel
it. The whole place glows with absence and the
grief that it carries.

K: While the load of us bumble our way out of
the graveyard and into the streets, I wonder
what exactly the glow of absence looks like. I
know the answer, but not with my eyes. On a

si made him a cinema
estminster’s Raymond

death, a damsel in
azed sidekick—is
eral asides, and a
the talented per-
ctor, Ellie King,

strength.

Octaber 27/2004

I" A BL@CDLETING PER

crazed patient, frequently crashes the produg
ful Lucy, Dracula’s (Matthew Spears) unsusp

The performances are engaging. Most nd
Mark Carter, as his performance almost ste
eyed and leering throughout the play, it is evi
playing the lunatic. Whenever he appears o
rally drawn to him, cutious as to what he’ll s

“T have creepy eyes,” Carter says to me aff
he is frequently cast as the crazy or the vi
Although he confesses he has.a hard time nf
ability to act and transform into his chard

The screaming, fainting, hoity damsel i
Kardum. Her performance shouldn’t be u
audience. She plays Lucy brilliantly. Kardun
ting is purposeful and designed to r
1 s. Her character is mul

   
 
 
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
 
   
   
    
   
   
   
  
   
   
  
   
  
  
  
  
   
   
  
   
  
 
   
  
   
 
  
    
 
     
   
       
      
 
    
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
   
    

lighter note, Bro
house party and q
Brother Adam ar
the random ho
hands and paper
may not be the
damn, we sure dd

A: In closing, be
living, I must a
causing raucous {
one of the most
long time (certai
a word of war
respects and mal
stirring up shit.
minority. We’ve
never know, Mic
you—it could be

  

  

 
 

 
 

  
 
 

every oby ieee fast-talking, attentio