New Nanaimo theatre company uses ‘devised production’ technique to create a tale of two women—one institutionalized and the other a nurse, trying to help

Feeling a little normal? Come a-muse yourself inside Grace’s head for an hour. Share her world of cellos, bubbles and chalk, where voices collide and mysteries unravel. Create a song with the other members of her imagination, where the outside world melts into a shattered lullaby.

The play is being performed at the 2014 Nanaimo Fringe Festival, at the Nanaimo Museum venue.

“Muse” tells the tale of two women—Grace, who is an institutionalized, musically gifted young woman, and her nurse, who carries a guilty secret from the past and wants desperately to connect with her charge. Grace’s caregiviers—in an attempt to reconnect her with the outside world—have forbidden her to escape into her music.

The story takes place inside Grace’s mind. The audience serves as her imagination. Over the course of the play, Grace and the audience create a song together as the story of shattered loyalty and the power of the imagination unfolds around them.

We speak with Natalia Hautala (“Grace”), Darlene Areseneault (“Vicky”), and director Barbra French.

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Find tickets and information about Muse and the Nanaimo Fringe Theatre Festival here.