Theatre Aquarius/Theatre Network/Western Canadian Theatre

Directed by: Brad Moss

Set & Lighting Design: Cory Sincennes 

Costume Designer: Jeff Cheif 

 Visually stunning and spiritually moving! These are the best ways to describe Theatre Aquarius’ current production of Where the Blood Mixes by Kevin Loring. It comes as no surprise that Loring’s piece has won the 2009 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, the Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script and the Sydney J. Risk Prize for Outstanding Original Script by an Emerging Playwright. The surprising part is that Where the Blood Mixes is his very first play. With this in mind, director Bradley Moss, and set and lighting designer Cory Sincennes take Loring’s precious jewel and frame it perfectly with visual magic and metaphors. Cory Sincennes’ set and lighting take their cues from the ever present spirit world in Aboriginal culture. Rock formations mixed with logs create the basic shape of the space. Layered onto this design, Sincennes’ introduces a slow undulating light with secondary side lighting to create shadow and depth to the landscape. The overall effect is ethereal. The eye catches movement and senses that the land is alive. All scenes and themes are then juxtaposed over the top of this constant “naturescape”: the bar, the drinking, the emotional devastation, the secret memories and the domestic discord. It is a tragic metaphor for the clash between Aboriginal tradition and the modern white man’s society. Aboriginal custom is lost in the meaningless impositions of the oppressors’ world. In perhaps one of the smallest but most poignant vignettes, a pile of losing jackpot tickets litter and overtake the beautiful scenery: a mass of broken attempts to escape back into authenticity...This show is a must: well written, beautifully directed, skillfully portrayed and socially crucial. Don’t miss it...Tamara Kamermans, Hamilton-View Magazine, 2012

...The 2009 Governor General’s Award winner...is all about fractured connections with the past, and survival against all odds. And the gigantic bottom-feeder, who eats the drowned and eludes capture, is both mythical and real, as Cory Sincennes’s beautiful design conveys with force and without words... Liz Nicholls- Edmonton Journal 2013

...Across a blasted landscape, a broken tree, roots exposed, falls gracelessly across grey rocks. Against a dark sky, spirits lurk. They come in the form of giant fish and birds, images of a land once proud and beautiful, now blighted....Co-produced with Western Canada Theatre and Theatre Network, Where the Blood Mixes sits nicely on the hard surfaces of Cory Sincennes’ moody setting, washed in the tint of atmospheric lighting. Gary Smith, Hamilton-The Spec, 2012

...The technical side is often overlooked in reviews, but mention has to be made of the spot-on lighting by Cory Sincennes, who also designed the sparse set... Dale Bass- Kamloops This Week, 2012