Science meets spectacle in a theatre soirée at Concordia

Mitochondrial Drama was at once campy, raunchy, poetic and dreamy

Fringe ArtsIndia Das-Brown — Published September 12, 2024 3 minutes

Mitochondrial Drama presented all that and more on Sept. 10 at Concordia’s 4th Space in the JW McConnell Building.

“We urge you to think beyond theoretical notions of ‘peace’ and invest time into how science can be used for collective liberation, and not-for-profit seeking ventures,” host Spencer Dorsey said, before introducing the afternoon’s first act, Annie Thao Vy Nguyen. Nguyen, a Concordia student, shared their poem and audiovisual texture, “A Gentle Sprawl.”

Nguyen sat cross-legged as they meditated on the cycles of creation and dissolution, juxtaposing the micro and the macro, from the cell to the landscape.

The poem was followed by a roller-skating clown—the charmingly ditzy Bombalurina (Lumi Mitton). Following this, Beau James delivered a fierce and raunchy performance as Nyx Tamère, or, as proclaimed by Dorsey, "Mitochondria! Power top of the cell!”

Concordia students Grace Stamler and Michelle Shuman presented their short experimental film, “Amorphisms II.” The film explored trance states, where the barrier between being and the universe breaks down. “Amorphisms II” used experimental video to document the smallest and most formless expressions of being: eggs and cells.

Thereafter, Montreal-based drag king Madeleine (Kris Macheque) gave a delightfully stumbling, bumbling, Saran-wrapped performance, embodying a marvelous amoeba. 

Diün Macdonald presented their 5-minute film “Egg Me,” exploring the delicate balance between fragility and resilience embodied by the egg. The film’s nebulous imagery and ghostly narration framed a hypnotic dreamscape.

“I didn't know what to expect,” said Macdonald, who has an arts rather than science background at Concordia. “I didn't even know what an egg would look like under the microscope. I didn't have any expectations, but it was just really funny, fun, and slimy, and super explorative.”

Dorsey closed the show with a fresh, romping drag performance of their own.

Concordia students Zoe Katz, Kathleen Hon and Anna Tchernikov co-organized the afternoon.

“We were really interested in how arts, and in this case, performance arts, can be a medium for translating science,” Katz said. “That comes from being a PhD student and really being broken down by how rough academia can be in terms of access barriers.”

Katz wanted to coordinate an event to talk about science in a more human, grounded and approachable way.

“There's this notion that science is something that happens somewhere beyond [our] understanding [...] that findings just materialize,” she said. “A face-to-face interaction really helps ground what science is, what it's about, who does it.”

Katz has more ideas for how to merge art and science, including a rave with sounds derived from microbial sources.

“Imagine raving to a mitochondria signature and just fucking it up on the dance floor,” she said. “The possibilities are endless.”