and every time, it’s a surprise. they never used to have gray hair.

Three cats and a programmer, that’s who I’m living with. The house drips with the edges of stories we’re not quite telling. Out for dinner, up in the morning, laptop in the livingroom, random laughter talking alone. Moments I want to remember.

Sigur Ros is filming a documentary.

The Fringe Festival lounge is constantly full of people I used to spend my life with. Now I only see them this once, every year, though I miss them. It makes it a very strange place for me. Everyone is a flamboyant memory of someone I used to be. Words thunder across the room, bringing back burning flashes of the smiles I wore, the names I used to sweetly remember, but my personal mythology doesn’t have an anchor anymore. I adore these people, their theatrical grand gestures and ridiculous, rewarding turns of phrase, so much I forget how we lost each other. We hug close, damp with laughter, talk about how great it was, how great it will be, but sobering, know that we’ll just do it again next year. Wonder where we went as every week passes by at the introspective speed of light, while the days drag on, threatening rain with every mile.

Dan Mangan was playing at the Lounge when I left tonight, another note in an absent chord of friends. I wanted to stay long enough to properly say Hello, but Ray was my ride and falling asleep on his feet, so I badly scribbled the word COFFEE? on one of my cards and left it on the stage where he was singing.

As I went, I promised people I would be back tomorrow. I’m already surprised at how much I’m looking forward to it.

I Cannot Stress how much I recommend this!

FYI – for those of you who missed The Heretic at the Fringe, you have a chance to see it. For those of you who have seen it, you have the opportunity to let your friends know that they can still catch it next weekend because it is HELD OVER, Thursday Sept 25 – Sunday, Sept 28: 9pm nightly at the Waterfront. Festival box office is selling our advance tickets, 604-257-0366.

THE HERETIC

HELD OVER AT THE WATERFRONT THEATRE
September 25th to 28th Thursday thru Sunday 9pm Nightly

Tickets are $12 Call Festival Box Office 604-257-0366

Media Contact Jonathan Ryder 604-831-5909

“The writing is clever and sophisticated, the production slick and the acting phenomenal. Easily the best show I saw in this year’s fringe”

-Jerry Wasserman, CBC

TOP 2 PICK! — Georgia Straight Critics’ Choice Award

“For those of us who find ourselves in a very God-haunted world these days, where the acolytes of the Almighty seem to be continually at each other’s and everybody else’s throats, Christian O’Connor’s The Heretic comes as a darkly comic catharsis. This story of a Roman catholic man, tortured by religious anxieties, who resolves to become an ‘evangelical atheist’ could hardly be more timely – of funnier. John Murphy gives a masterful turn in the lead role – and indeed in all the other roles in the play, moving between radically different characterizations with what has almost become his trademark pell-mell precision. This range is remarkably vast, with all the requisite variations in tone and speed to keep watchers riveted. He is supported by a wonderfully witty script (“It’s Yahweh or the Highway!”) that, for all of its boisterous blasphemies, ends up being a rather profound commentary on the nature of the religious impulse itself.” -Bryson Young, Vancouver Sun

“Vancouver actor John Murphy’s wickedly funny one-man revue is so stupefyingly irreverent, we’re probably going to hell just for laughing at it. Murphy aims to be provocative and succeeds.”

-Pat St. Germain, Winnipeg Sun

“…a hilarious script, great acting and a technically superb show. Actor John Murphy’s performance is flawless. The comedy is fast-paced! …with God up in heaven … and humans as his “ultimate reality TV show.”–along with some serious insights into the fear of death.”

-Cheryl Binning, Winnipeg Free Press

“…a wild ride of a play that’s both hilarious and deadly serious. Extremely well written and equally well executed” -Linda Harlos,CBC

“…constantly funny and provocative.”

-Silas Polkinghorne, Saskatoon Star Phoenix

“BRILLIANT! CONTROVERSIAL!

…funny and insightful! …Wildly pleasurable and unpredictable, kind of like a Disney Land rollercoaster ride in the dark!!!…Check your guilt at the door brothers and sisters…”

-101.5 UMFM Radio, Winnipeg