Commitment Ceremonies
The long and short of Luminato: a time-tested pocket guide By Jason McBride
Art may be in the eye of the beholder, but artists would be wise to consider the size of the beholder’s attention span (and bladder). As anyone who has experienced, say, the Ring Cycle or Benjamin Button knows, one’s appreciation of art often has an inverse relationship with the amount of effort required to, um, appreciate it. This year’s Luminato festival features, as usual, a panoply of events, but some call for a little more dedication than others. Here, four offerings and their toll on your psyche and your pocketbook.
REDBALL PROJECT TORONTO
Kurt Perschke’s enormous crimson sphere—a sculptural installation that will pop up at different locations around town—is many things to many people. A giant squeeze toy. A comment on public space. An eyesore. Find it, look at it, poke it.
Time and money: two nanoseconds and $0.
THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE
R. Murray Schafer’s new interactive opera gives audiences a small taste of the apocryphal 13th-century expedition by having them wander through an industrial warehouse in Parkdale. Not recommended, oddly enough,
for kids under 12.
Time and money: 90 minutes and $40.
THE GREAT CANADIAN TUNE
A bid to snatch the world record for the largest guitar ensemble away from the Germans. The goal: 2,000 Bruce Cockburn wannabes strumming the top Canadian ditty (determined by an on-line vote) simultaneously in Yonge-Dundas Square.
Time and money: four and
a half hours and $0.
LIPSYNCH
Robert Lepage’s latest asks a lot of patrons, even for him. Over nine hours (yes, nine), the stage ace explores the human voice, from a baby’s cries to an MC’s rap. Order a catered meal and make a day of it; you don’t have much choice.
Time and money: (we’ll say it again) nine big ones and $75–$125.
Luminato runs from June 5 to 14. Various locations, 416-872-1111, luminato.com.
Photographs: Redball and Great Canadian Tune courtesy of Luminato; Children’s Crusade by Cylla von Tiedemann; Lipsynch by Erick Labbe
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