The picturesque forest around Evergreen Brickworks is currently the backdrop for one of the most moving performance experiences I’ve ever encountered. Grief and loss are something we all unfortunately must undergo at some point in our lives; it’s one of the things that unites us all as humans. Walk With Me While I Remember You takes you one on one with eight different young people who have been touched by grief and at particularly young ages. Directed by Craig McCorquodale, and co devised by Isabel Ahat and Marie Lola Minimo, this immersive and personal look at grief, and how to keep the flame of those we’ve lost alive, is a perfect addition to the Good Mourning Festival and something I think everyone should have the chance to experience.
Walk With Me While I Remember You takes you on a walk through the beautiful trails at Evergreen Brickworks while being guided by several performers. Throughout the journey, each performer tells you their experience with loss. What I loved about the performance was that there weren’t a lot of details shared about the manner of the person’s death, nor really any sad stories told. Rather, they choose to focus on the happier memories and the things they think about now that keeps their loved one close to them. The stories they tell not only allow you to know that performer on a deep and profound level, but they consistently ask you to engage with the material yourself, making you think of the loved ones you miss and how you keep them in your heart.
Walk With Me While I Remember You is a totally unique immersive experience because of the one on one nature of the performance. It’s just you (or maybe you and one other person) who are being accompanied by the performer. I also loved that each performer had some element to their portion of the performance to make it personal to them: with one you light a candle which smells like their mother’s favourite scent, another plays the piano for you which they used to practice with their mother. Some you listen to their musings about their loved one as a pre-recorded audio performance, which allows you to silently hold space with one another. You never know what to expect from each story and each section, and I really appreciated the thought and planning that went into putting all of those elements together.
Another aspect of this production which was profound to me was that with each new guide, they asked “Will you walk with me?” This encourages us to actively engage with the performers as we go, and makes us willing agents in the telling of these stories. We’re asked our names, if we’ll walk with them, or if we’d like to sit with them, it creates an immediate connection between audience member and performer, and it really meant a lot to me as I ventured on this journey.
There is so much of me which related to these young people; I’ve been through a great deal of loss in my life, and yet even I found it difficult to fathom what these lovely people have been through. It made the performance that much more meaningful to me as they shared such difficult times in their lives. I cannot imagine the strength it would take for them to tell these stories so many times in a day; I certainly know that I would not make it through them as well as these talented storytellers did. I also stopped to talk to the fabulous therapist who they have on hand to speak to audience members at the end of the performance, should they need to. We had a lovely chat, and I was thankful to have someone to talk to after such a moving experience.
Walk With Me While I Remember You will have another full day of performances on November 5th. This is a FREE performance, they just ask that you register for your time slot in advance. While you’re there, you can take in other elements of the Good Mourning Festival as well! For more information and to book your ticket, visit: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/walk-with-me-while-i-remember-you-tickets-731441139137
Cover photo courtesy of Mammalian Diving Reflex
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