SPIN mesmerizes in Fort Simpson
Show celebrates the bicycle as muse and agent of social change
Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 24, 2013
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
On Oct. 21, artist Evalyn Parry held an audience in the Fort Simpson community hall spellbound as she challenged them to consider what they would dare to do.
The bicycle is both a muse, an agent of social change and an instrument in the multimedia show SPIN. Evalyn Parry, left, performed the show along with Brad Hart in Fort Simpson on Oct. 21, her last stop on a tour organized as part of the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre's season.
Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo
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Parry, along with percussionist Brad Hart, performed SPIN, a show she wrote and debuted in 2011. SPIN is part theatrical performance, part musical and part history lesson.
Most of all, it is a celebration of the bicycle as a muse and an agent of social change.
Parry performed in front of a large screen displaying changing images that linked to the themes of her songs and monologues. Hart enhanced the performance by drawing a surprising array of sounds from his instrument, a vintage bicycle suspended in a mechanic's stand on the stage.
"This was like the most interesting women's studies class I've ever taken," said Lynn Canney, one of the approximately 40 audience members.
Canney said the show brought back happy memories of time spent in university libraries where she found similar stories about other amazing women. Through SPIN, Parry explores the role bicycles played in the 19th century women's emancipation movement.
Bicycles gave women mobility, the ability to go where they wanted, when they wanted under their own power, the Toronto-based artist said before the performance.
The show focuses on the story of Annie Londonderry, who in 1895 became the first woman to ride around the world on a bicycle. To accomplish this feat, 23-year-old Londonderry left her husband and three children for more than a year.
The show's title, SPIN, also refers to spinning stories to gather and market attention. To fund her journey, Londonderry sold advertising space on her bicycle and clothing and ever-changing stories about her exploits to members of the press.
Parry has performed SPIN across Canada and the United States. This was her first time in the NWT. The tour was organized by the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre (NACC) as part of their new season.
Although SPIN particularly resonates with audiences where there is a strong cycling culture, Parry said the show was well received in the five NWT communities where she performed, Fort Simpson being the last. There is a message about the desire to fight for freedom and to break down limitations that society might be imposing on you that transcends just bicycles, she said.
People have also been fascinated by the idea of a bicycle as an instrument.
"It's a unique thing to have a duet between a bicycle and guitars and vocals," said Parry.
SPIN also brings out other people's stories about bicycles. Parry said she met a number of people during the tour who had cycled the Dempster Highway or had other bicycle-based adventures.
Canney said the show reminded her of her first grown-up bicycle – a purple Peugeot – that her parents bought her for Christmas when she was 12.
"I have fond memories of riding that bike for years and years after," she said.
Harry Manx will be the next performer touring to Fort Simpson with NACC. Manx, a musician who fuses Eastern musical traditions with the blues, will be performing on Nov. 18 at 7:30 p.m.
