Crestfallen Theatre will present BrokeDownTown — what it calls a “mixed media installation and performance phantasmagoria” — Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.
The production takes an audience on an adventure inspired by the ghosts and the approaching spectre of downtown Sudbury.
Telling a story told through sound, image, object, text and performance, BrokeDownTown has been created by a diverse group, featuring some of Sudbury’s most talented artists: Daniel Aubin, Daniel Bédard, Jorge Cueto, Marc Donato, Jenny Hazelton, Matthew Heiti, France Huot, Patrick Ryan and Dani Taillefer.
Staged in a seldom-seen historic space overlooking the heart of downtown, BrokeDownTown tells the fictional story of department store impressario, Nathan Nickelman, who limps into town with nothing but the cold, hard lump of a dream.
He makes his fortune, but loses everything in the flames. As buildings tumble around him, the ghosts of his past return to keep him company in his abandoned department store, for one fast, flickering night.
BrokeDownTown is inspired by the fantasy world of the department stores of old and the boom, bust and revival of downtown cores everywhere.
For two evenings audiences are invited into a relic of Sudbury's past: 67 Elm St., also known as the Silverman Building.
From humble beginnings as a shack on the main drag, Silverman's Department Store would eventually rise three storeys into the sky, encompassing 45,000 square feet. It was "The Greatest Store in Northern Ontario." Silverman's was here. And then, one day, it was gone.
67 Elm St. is now home to Querney's Office Plus, itself a mainstay and family business in the heart of downtown. Large-scale renovations undertaken by the Querney family in recent years have restored much of the beauty and preserved the history of the century-old building.
BrokeDownTown is both a performance and an art installation that gives us a look into a relic of our past, and asks us to question our notion of fantasy, as we move forward into a downtown that is ours to keep.
This project is supported by the Ontario Arts Council, Pat the Dog Theatre Creation, the City of Greater Sudbury and Querney's Office Plus.
Doors to the event open at 7 p.m. Free reservations can be made through CrestfallenTheatre.com. http://www.crestfallentheatre.com/
