35mm: A Musical Exhibition (Stage 36, ArtsHub Ortona)
By Liz Nicholls, .ca
In “Stop Time,” the opening number in 35mm: a musical exhibition, the five-member Uniform Theatre ensemble directed by Jim Guedo sings of the capture of a moment in a photograph. “There. Life (still focus. More life…. life stopped in pose.”
It’s the kind of show — a play? a musical? a concert? a song cycle on its feet — you never get to see at the Fringe. Especially since it marries, song by song, to photographs that are full of narrative possibilities, both before and after the click. The music and lyrics, both complex, are by New York composer Ryan Scott Oliver. And the eloquently dramatic photographs that pair with them are by the well-known NYC theatre photographer Matthew Murphy.
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You can’t help wondering how the songs fit together in a contemporary urban landscape. I’m not sure. It’s not that the through-sung musical score and the visuals-scape of this highly unusual 2012 piece interpret each other. Not exactly. It’s more that both have a foothold on contemporary urban life at precarious moments when everything is about to change, or fall apart, or move forward: joy snatched from despair, ecstasy that feels fleeting, desperation, dawning realizations, or seconds of fractured solitude from people whose lives we glimpse.
Both music and photographs are an invitation to imagine: a moment of spiritual awakening (or nostalgia), marriages poised on a knife edge where they could go either way, when a woman realizes she loves more than she is loved and a partner is about to move on. Or moments when a man realizes that’s what he’ll do, not today but one day soon. In Carilee, a harried parent is struck by the appalling thought that babies are for life. A man on an industrial pedestrian bridge with his back to us is caught as he moves towards an unidentifiable light. Why Must We Tell Them Why, is accompanied by a multi-angled sequence of gymnastic leaps caught mid-air.
35mm: a musical exhibition, Uniform Theatre at Fringe 2026. Photo by Brianne Jang
Guedo’s production fully occupies the airy, brick and wood chamber of the ArtsHub Ortona. And it’s a shame that the acoustical reverb in the place continues to be problematic for lyrics. He sets his singer-actors in motion on a gangway — between the past and the future? — with big screens on either end. We’re on either side, as the cast circle each other and engage with us close-up. And the expert live band directed by Steven Greenfield at the keyboard occupies a dark space behind a screen.
The cast — Matthew Gregg, Corben Kushneryk, Layne Labbe, Damon Pitcher, Mackenzie Tennessee — are all powerful singers. They negotiate a difficult score with dramatically jagged rhythms and dissonances, as well as gorgeous melodies seem to dissolve sometimes before they can resolve. Or not resolve.
A unique experience, the theatre of the imagined moment. Don’t miss your chance.