Beowulf in Afghanistan
Thursday, November 19 at 7:30PM | Beowulf in Afghanistan by Laurie Fyffe, featuring Laurie Fyffe and Axandre Lemours (Blackbox Studio, Arts Court and Live stream broadcast)
When Literature Professor Louise Flynn receives a partly destroyed copy of Beowulf in the mail, she recalls her former student Grant, who enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces and was posted to Afghanistan. The story of Beowulf begins to reveal parallels between the ancient tale and one soldier’s experience of modern conflict. Written by Laurie Fyffe and told by Fyffe and Axandre Lemours.
Laurie Fyffe is a playwright, actor, dramaturge and Artistic Director of Ottawa’s Evolution Theatre. In the Covid-19 spring of 2020, her play Exciting Cause received an online Zoom workshop through TACTICS and with the support of the OAC. The Secret Life of Emily/Frances premiered at the 2015 Ottawa Fringe. Laurie was dramaturge and director of Evolution Theatre’s The Home Show, 2017, and Evolution Theatre’s site specific Safe As Houses (public workshop, August of 2019). Laurie’s play Being Helen received a workshop and public reading during the Ergo Pink Festival in Toronto (2018) and Mirage: The Arabian Adventure of Gertrude Bell was part of Alumnae Theatre’s Fireworks Festival (2018). Other plays include The Malaysia Hotel (Herman Voaden Playwriting Competition, 2003), and her short play In Kabul, which premiered at New Theatre of Ottawa’s 2012 Short Play Festival and was subsequently produced at InspiraTo,Toronto, and the Short & Sweet Festival in Sydney, Australia. As Managing Artistic Director of Ottawa StoryTellers (OST), she adapted James Bartleman’s Raisin Wine (2014), and co-wrote A Winter Tale: The Journey of the Blind Harper (2015). Laurie received her MA in Theatre, Dramaturgy from the University of Ottawa (2010) and now teaches at Algonquin College in the School of Professional Writing and in the Department of Media Studies.
Born and raised in Ottawa, Axandre Lemours has turned a passion for music into a love of all things theatre, and has been performing for five years. Mainly dabbling in musical theatre, he has worked with various Ottawa-based companies on shows such as Hairspray (2015), Mary Poppins (2017), and Ragtime (2017) before making the jump to prose in 2019. Recent performances include theatre decentered's Honey Dew Me (undercurrents theatre festival, 2020) and TotoToo Theatre’s Love and Human Remains (2019).