The idea for Kitt & Jane, the stage sequel to Fringe favourite Little Orange Man, germinated in director/star Ingrid Hansen’s mind when she was 12 years old and flipping through dog-eared copies of National Geographic magazine. The result, a look at fighting off an apocalypse through the eyes of two 14-year-olds, isn’t nearly as heavy as it seems, she says.
“I remember reading those magazines and adding up all of the looming catastrophes of the world and coming to the conclusion that I probably wouldn’t live to be an old person, or if I did the world was going to be a very, very different place,” explains Hansen. “And at 12 that didn’t scare me, or intimidate me. I was like, ‘Cool, I’m game.’ If anything, I was excited.”
Subtitled An Interactive Survivalguide to the Near-Post-Apocalyptic Future, Kitt and Jane has slightly more serious subject matter than its predecessor, Little Orange Man, which dealt with individuality and mortality through the eyes of a young girl.
Hansen, co-star and co-creator Rod Peter Jr., and director Kathleen Greenfield were careful to make sure Kitt and Jane’s environmental message was taking a glass half-full approach, instead of being a bummer.
“We’ve all wrestled with how we envision the future of livability on our planet and one of the things that we often came back to was talking about it was a total downer, like it’s not really party conversation, because it can be so overwhelming and there’s so much that needs to be fixed in the world,” says Hansen. “But this show is taking a 14-year-old’s approach to the future of the world, so it’s taking everything as a challenge, everything is an exciting possibility and no one really knows what the world is going to look like 50 years from now.”
Greenfield, who also worked with Hansen on Little Orange Man, says the process of creating Kitt and Jane has been a “wonderful team experience.” And while the trio have treated the script with its required seriousness, even interviewing Victoria youth for an accompanying podcast called A Teenager’s Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse, the play’s creation has had its share of goofball antics as well.
“Working with Ingrid and Rod has been a barrel of laughs. I think we spend about 90 percent of the time rolling on the ground laughing,” says Greenfield. “They are such sharp improvisers and sometimes I just can’t stop the amazing things that spill out of their mouths.”
The character of Kitt is one that Hansen, also the co-artistic director of SNAFU Dance Theatre, holds very close to her heart. Loosely based on her own childhood, she says Kitt is a challenge to play onstage for extended periods of time.
“It’s fun… and it’s exhausting, because she’s a real powerhouse and it’s full force,” says Hansen. “I don’t know if Kitt’s really me as a child. She’s maybe what I wished I was like as a child.”
Hansen met Peter through the local Atomic Vaudeville theatre group and says she’s wanted to create a play with him for a long time. And Greenfield, whom she met in class while attending UVic’s bachelor of fine arts program (both women are grads), is someone Hansen says she’s very comfortable working with at this point. In fact, their special connection might be the reason Kitt and Jane is so daring, she says.
“There’s something really special about Kathleen in that she’s so game and willing to go to the wildest and most unlikely of places, and she’s willing to combine things that people might never consider combining,” says Hansen, “so I’ll share the weirdest things with her in creating shows that I’d probably never share with anyone else, and that’s what enables us to build really unique stuff together.”
Meanwhile, Greenfield is excited to see what response this updated version of Kitt and Jane, which was previously launched at last year’s Belfry Spark Festival, will receive from its Victoria audiences during an upcoming Belfry three-day run, as well as an October 17-26 staging at UVic’s Phoenix Theatre.
“It’s been a blast to participate in the next chapter,” she says. “We already know the story of Kitt from Little Orange Man, but what about Lucas who smells like he poops his pants, a.k.a. Jane?”
Even with An Interactive Survivalguide to the Near-Post-Apocalyptic Future as the play’s tagline, the creators aren’t worried Kitt and Jane is going to be passed up by those who fear it’s not the feel-good show of the year.
“No, it’s not a concern,” says Hansen. “If anything, it’s so great to have such dire stakes and then the humour comes out of the extreme situations. So there was never really any worry about it being a downer.”
Oh, and if there’s still a shred of doubt about the heavy subject matter, there’s free cake! That’s right, free cake!
Kitt and Jane
May 16-18, 8 pm
The Belfry Arts Centre, $10-$15
snafudance.com