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Axis Theatre Company

CTE photo
The Number 14

A touring physical theatre company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, founded in 1975 by Lin Bennett, Wendy Gorling, Elizabeth Murray-Byers and Wayne Specht, who was Artistic Director for 38 years. It originally developed and produced theatre for young audiences, but now also includes works for adult audiences. Its theatrical style is a multi-disciplinary, incorporating mime, dance, clown, puppetry and acrobatics, underscored by inventive text and music.

It has developed over 50 original productions, but is best known for its enduring comedy, The Number 14, a boisterous enactment and celebration of urban bus travel that has become an international hit since its creation in 1992. In 2007 it was again on the road, returning to the Belfry Theatre in Victoria for its fourth time, the Thousand Islands Playhouse in Gananoque, Calgary’s Vertigo Theatre, the Capitol Theatre in Nelson and Western Canada Theatre Company in Kamloops – and then to the Scottish International Children’s Festival in May-June for the second time to perform the one hour TYA version. In April 2013, after twenty years of touring, it arrived at the Centaur Theatre in Montreal. The Number 14 has been awarded a 1998 New York Drama Desk nomination in the Unique Theatrical Experiences category, four Jessies (Jessie Richardson Awards/cross>, and a Dora nomination.

The Number 14 originated in Vancouver in 1992 as the brainchild of Wayne Specht and Roy Surette. Stemming from a series of improvisational skits, this collective creation portrays urban city life from the point of view of a variety of individuals who ride the bus – each stop revealing difference in economic and social environments, age, gender, and behaviour.

According to Surette, "the goal was to recognize the chaos of living in the city … to capture the absurdity, diversity and eccentricities we witness and participate in as we go about our daily business. The inspiration: commedia dell’arte, Monty Python, silent movies, Mr. Bean, vaudeville and ritual. … we used masks to create larger-than-life characters who are instantly recognizable as the people we see every day – the wealthy and the destitute, the aggressive and the apathetic, strangers and lovers, the kind and the cruel. Overall, this is a piece that celebrates the theatrical. Sitting in a seat becomes a dance, silence becomes music. Six actors transform into sixty characters."

For its 2007-2008 season Axis reprised its multiple Jessie Awards nominated production of The Emperors’s New Threads, adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen’s classic short story “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Melody Anderson and Peter Anderson.

As of 2015, the Artistic Director is Chris McGregor.

website: www.axistheatre.com

Last updated 2020-02-27