For more information please email: origins (at) vcn.bc.ca

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Blue Dragons

By Gordon Armstrong

This was Origins Theatre Projects first play where the company was fully based in Vancouver. As a premiere production, it was wonderful way to begin our company’s work in Vancouver. Featuring poetic language, and a heartwrenching love story that travels through loss, guilt and the tragic disease of AIDS, our production was recognized with 4 Jessie Nominations including Outstanding Production. Sadly, during the preproduction for Blue Dragons, the playwright Gordon Armstrong died. We mark his legacy, with the Gordon Armstrong Playwright’s Rent Award.

Production Credits:
Alex Ferguson as Bram
Shawn McDonald as Nick
Donnard MacKenzie as Simon
Directed by Roy Surrette and Jonathan Teague
Costumes Tyler Tone
Lighting by Del Surjick
Scenography by Terrence van der Woulde
Properties by Colin Upright
Stage Manager Patricia Ann Johnson
 

MAGICAL BLUE DRAGONS: Vancouver Production does justice to Gordon Armstrong’s lyric play
Gary Probe, Xtra-West

“This fine Origins Theatre Projects production features wonderful performances  from a committed cast.”    Rene Doruyter, The Province

“...pair(ing)  emerging director, Jonathan Teague, with the experience of Roy Surette has paid-off in a tight, engaging, production....multiple shifts deftly handled...evocative soundscape....Ferguson and MacKenzie, curled together in Bram’s hospital bed, create scenes so loving they make you want to hold your breath.  It’s a moving work, less exuberant than some of Gordon’s other plays, more vulnerable. rounder, but still full of edges.” 
Anne Fleming, Georgia Straight

“There is also a wonderfully wry sense of humour in this act that offsets
the harrowing scenes of Bram’s physical anguish.  Just when it feels as if we can’t take any more of this suffering, Armstrong and Co-directors Roy Surette surprise us with a big, bold theatrical moment to close the first act." 
Barbara Crook, The Vancouver Sun

“It may seem strange that you can walk out of a theatre after two hours of watching an intense, many, layered story about a young man’s death, and feel thoroughly ENTERTAINED by the evening, yet that is precisely the effect of Blue Dragons. Origins Theatre Projects handles the complex work lovingly....In the narrative role of Simon, Donard Mackenzie gives a thoughtful, ingenuous performance. Alex Ferguson finds the subtle irony in Bram, the young AIDS victim....As Nick, the waspish misfit friend, Shawn Macdonald gives a quirky, courageous performance....” 
Louise Whitney, West End Times