All live theatre is an act of courage, wouldn’t you say? In some ways, it’s risky for everyone: the performers, writers, producers as well as the audience.  As an audience, we expect to be entertained, inspired, and challenged in exchange for our time and money.  The creative team displays the product of months (sometimes years) of work, distilled into a couple of hours of live performance, subject to amateur criticism, dismissal or rejection.

It’s a precarious situation.  Despite all of the challenges, live theatre continues, thank goodness.

This week, I had the privilege of attending a presentation of Rick Miller’s BoomX at the Belfry Theatre.  I made a point of going to the show because I had seen one of his previous shows, Boom.  I remember it being a creative, interesting and thoroughly entertaining performance.  Maybe you are familiar with Rick Miller, as his show MacHomer, originally performed at the Montreal Fringe Festival, has been presented in 130 countries.  (Yes, one hundred and thirty!)

Rick Miller wrote, directed and performed in all of these shows. Click here for two very brief trailers for the shows, Boom and BoomX.  It will help you get a sense of his many talents, and the tenor of the work.  The shows are well researched;  I particularly liked the inclusion of Canadian content.  It’s a multi-disciplinary, fast-paced  performance, with a variety of visual and sound effects. Miller welcomes us –the audience–into the performance.  It ends on a thoughtful note as Miller speaks about the merits of live theatre.  I left the show looking forward to the final instalment of this trilogy of plays.

Actually, I may go to see it again.  There’s still time as BoomX continues to Sunday, August 18 at the Belfry Theatre in Victoria, B.C.