With original scores by either Richard McDowell or David Rhymer and choreography by Denise Clarke, One Yellow Rabbit's seamless integration of sound and movement has been one of the unique strengths of the company over it's 28 year history.
There are 78 audio files available.
- On the Performance Tabs above: If a show has original audio - an in-page HTML 5 MP3 Player has been provided below that show's credits.
- The MP3 player below is Flash based. Click on a show name (an Album) and choose a track.
One Yellow Rabbit began performing 28 years ago, long before it became as easy as it is today to record and archive digital media. Many of our early shows were either not documented or were recorded on now outdated equipment or media but we've done our best to dig back through the existing archives to find video good enough to compress into web movies.
Whenever the source material allows it we attempt to use larger sizes and better formatted videos. There are currently 16 different One Yellow Rabbit productions available and more on the way. Enjoy!
World Premiere: January 11, 2011 as part of the 25th annual High Performance Rodeo.
Inspired by the classic 1952 film, The Member of the Wedding, SMASH CUT FREEZE explores what really goes on behind the perfect white picket fences of your neighbourhood.
- Conceived Written and Directed by Denise Clarke
- Music and Sound Design by Richard McDowell
- Story structure by Denise Clarke, Andy Curtis, Johanne Deleeuw and Christopher Duthie
- Lighting Design by Sandi Somers
- Father: Andy Curtis
- Mother: Denise Clarke
- The Boy: Christopher Duthie
- Stage Manager: Johanne Deleeuw
- Apprentice Stage Manager/Assistant to the Ensemble: Michelle Kennedy
- Production Manager /Technical Direction: Fiona Kennedy
- Set, Props and Costumes by Fiona Kennedy, based on a design by Denise Clarke
Performed: September. 14-18, 2010
A physical exploration of Radiohead's In Rainbows.
If you've ever zoned out with Radiohead on your earphones, this show is for you!
- Directed by Denise Clarke.
- Performed by beAutifulyoungaRtisTs
- One Yellow Rabbit's Big Secret Theatre.
"It's a bit bizzare, kind of funny, but in it's own way, rather beautiful."
Four Stars **** | Richard Lam - Press+1 | Read the review
World Premiere: January 19-23, 2010 as part of the 24th annual High Performance Rodeo.
An unlikely trio threads through the misty outskirts of Tokyo, stocking up on vodka and briquettes for their final ride. Equal parts mystery and love story, Kawasaki Exit is inspired by the real-life dark side of Japanese social networking sites. This highly original new play is performed in English and Japanese by the award-winning One Yellow Rabbit Ensemble.
- Written by: Blake Brooker with translation by Manami Hara.
- Directed by: Blake Brooker
- Staging: Denise Clarke
- Lighting design: Sandi Somers
- Sound design: Richard McDowell
- Technical director: Fiona Kennedy
Featuring
- Denise Clarke
- Andy Curtis
- Patrick MacEachern
Adapted and performed by the One Yellow Rabbit Performing Ensemble
- Directed by: Blake Brooker
- Staging: Denise Clarke
- Original Music: Richard McDowell
- Production Manager/Lighting Design: Scott Baier
- Production Coordinator: Fiona Kennedy
- World Premiere: January 27-31, 2009
Featuring
- Denise Clarke
- Andy Curtis
- Michael Green
Gilgamesh: the world’s oldest epic, already ancient by the time of Christ, earlier than–and vastly different from–any other great myth we know. Think of it as the first-ever buddy movie over 4,000 years before movies were invented. Gilgamesh La-Z-Boy is One Yellow Rabbit’s re-telling of the story, a modern interpretation unlike any other.
Gilgamesh: the son of a goddess, born a hero and a king, god-ruler of the Sumerian city Uruk, located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq. He is unconquerable, strong beyond all others and beloved by his armies. But also tyrannical, childish, selfish, ruthless, and bored.
Meet Enkidu: wild-man, half beast, sent by the gods to terrorize the countryside and chastise Gilgamesh–that is, until the two become fast friends, together undertaking a lethal quest in search of immortality. It is a tale of snarling demons, giant divine bulls, serpents and devastatingly seductive priestesses. But most of all, it is a moving and celebratory story about what it means to live a good life, the nature of happiness, friendship, and of men learning to be, above all else, human.
High-society party poets, with passions as fiery as their verse.
- Directed by: Blake Brooker
- Assistant Director: David Van Belle
- Staging: Denise Clarke
- Sound Design: Richard McDowell
- Production Manager/Lighting Design: Scott Baier
- Production Coordinator: Fiona Kennedy
- Stage Manager: Gina Puntil
Featuring
- Denise Clarke – Anne Sexton
- Andy Curtis – Kayo Sexton
- Onalea Gilbertson – Sylvia Plath
- Michael Green – Ted Hughes
Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, two of the 20th century’s most prolific and complex literary figures, are inexorably linked, as much by their mutual zeal for life as by their infamous deaths.
They met in a poetry class, but their friendship flared over martinis at the Ritz, where they spilled stories of psychiatry and suicide, delighting in a mutual disdain for taboo. Their insatiable appetites, sexual and intellectual, defied strait-jacketed social norms and their prescribed roles as mothers and wives. Together, their writing sparked a revolution in American poetry, bringing personal confession to the forefront of verse by pounding frustration and turmoil onto typewritten pages.
In their newest original work, the award-winning One Yellow Rabbit Performing Ensemble invites audiences on a voyeuristic journey to another era, where cocktails are swilled and conflicted souls are expressed in a cathartic torrent of ink and emotion. Using the text of Plath and Sexton as a springboard, they tackle themes of power, madness, extinction and survival, presenting poetry as it should be: fierce, fervent and devastating.
Entering the tower of my fears,
I shut my door on that dark guilt,
I bolt the door, each door I bolt.
Blood quickens, gonging in my ears:
The panther’s tread is on the stairs,
Coming up and up the stairs.
- Sylvia Plath, from “Pursuit”
Performances
High performance Rodeo - Vertigo Playhouse Theatre - Calgary,
Alberta: January 8-12, 2008
Young Centre for the Performing Arts - Toronto: December, 2008
One Yellow Rabbit and Rheostatics
Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica
- Written by Dave Bidini
- Adapted for the stage by Dave Bidini and Blake Brooker
- Directed by Blake Brooker
- Original music by Rheostatics
- Performed by the One Yellow Rabbit Ensemble and Rheostatics
- Staged by Denise Clarke
- Sound Design by Richard McDowell
- January 4-6, 2007: 7:30 pm nightly
- In the Martha Cohen Theatre at the EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts
Five hole (n.):
1. The space between a goalie's legs.
2. A new show that brings Canada's two favourite pastimes-hockey and sex-together at last on one rollicking theatre stage.
As exhilarating as winning game seven, more off-the-wall than Don Cherry's fashion sense, and naughty enough to draw a five-minute major: Five Hole presents a suite of engrossing, tender and hilarious erotic stories about the steamy underbelly of our national sport.
About Rheostatics
For more than two decades Rheostatics have mapped new frontiers across Canada, embracing the nation that bore them and reinterpreting its sea-to-shining-sea grandeur in music of startling variety and indisputable beauty. Lead by stalwarts Dave Bidini and Martin Tielli, their music has been described variously as "prog-rock," "art-rock," "orchestral psychedelia" and "a loosely organized cacophony of sound," all of which reveal the frustrating limits of language.
About Dave Bidini
A master storyteller, Rheostatic Dave Bidini lifts the hockey story to the level of modern Canadian folklore. He has become popular in recent years as one of Canada's best known authors, having published several books including two critically acclaimed volumes on hockey culture, including Tropic of Hockey and The Best Game You Can Name (McClelland & Stewart).
Performances
Martha Cohen Theatre - Calgary,
Alberta: January 4-6, 2007
Canadian tour - February and March, 2009: Calgar, Whitehorse, Ottawa, Kingston, St. Catherines, Kitchener, Brampton.
- Written and Directed by Blake Brooker
- Staged by Denise Clarke
- Sound by Richard McDowell
- Assistant directed by: David van Belle
- Production manager: Ian Wilson
- House technician: Chipp Robb
- Produced by: Stephen Schroeder
Synopsis
He only owns one suit, but it's a tuxedo!
One Yellow Rabbit's new comedy, Down With Up With People, takes you deep inside the untold story of Anthony Curtola, known to thousands of tipsy Calgarians as the smarmy host of the Big Rock Eddies.
But who is the real Anthony Curtola? Mr. Nude Medicine Hat 1978? Love child of Keith Richards and David Niven? Or reject from Up With People, that troupe of clean-cut, dancing teens whose saccharine theme song told us to like everyone? ("Up, up with people! You meet them wherever you go...")
Featuring
- Andy Curtis as Anthony Curtola
- Denise Clarke
- Onalea Gilbertson
- Kyrsten Blair
Performances
The Big Secret Theatre - Calgary, Alberta: September 20 - October 7, 2006
- Written by: Blake Brooker and the ensemble
- Directed by: Blake Brooker
- Assistant directed by: David van Belle
- Sound design by: Richard McDowell
- Production manager: Ian Wilson
- House technician: Chipp Robb
- Produced by: Stephen Schroeder
Synopsis
Hayride is a thought provoking comedy by, for and about grown-ups coming of (middle) age and for those who yearn to understand them.
Bearded God, bus maintenance through prayer, Logan's Run, what to do on your night sea journey, Walt Whitman, heavy petting, the mysteries of plasticine, Changes.
Featuring
- Denise Clarke
- Onalea Gilbertson
- Michael Green
Performances
The Big Secret Theatre - Calgary, Alberta: April 18 - May 6, 2006
- Written by: Denise Clarke
- Directed by: Denise Clarke
- Lighting by: Blake Brooker
- Choreography/Staging: Denise Clarke
- Video Editing : Richard McDowell
- Stage management: David van Belle
A Fabulous Disaster made it's Calgary Premiere on September 13, 2005 at The Big Secret Theatre.
Synopsis
A Fabulous Disaster is Denise Clarke’s newest signature dance/drama about one seemingly hopeless person’s bravery in the face of the obvious disaster around her and the quiet one in her heart. Strange, beautiful and funny, the show toils with love, jealously, loneliness, acceptance and brilliant stupidity. Clarke brings sharp observation and glorious physical response together in an original piece drawing on all things opposite.
Featuring
- Denise Clarke
Performances
Ruby Slippers Theatre and The Firehall Arts Centre: November, 2004World Stage: Flying Solo Festival in Toronto: May, 2005
An international collaboration by One Yellow Rabbit, Het Huis van Bourgondië and Hebbel am Ufer commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Liberation of Holland.
Sixty years on, three modern theatre companies explore a defining moment in World War II in a unique collaboration.
Any Canadian traveller who has spent time in Holland knows that the Dutch hold a persistently high regard for our nation. The reason is that in the final year of WWII, some 7,000 Canadian soldiers lost their lives there in a series of large set-piece battles and vicious house-to-house fighting that was largely instrumental in liberating the country from Nazi occupation.
Now, three theatre companies - one Canadian, one Dutch and one German - mark the 60th anniversary of this turning point in their collective histories with a unique trans-Atlantic collaboration. Their rules of engagement: to create a triptych of short pieces, fused together into one tri-national work of theatre. Calgary's One Yellow Rabbit, Berlin's Hebbel am Ufer, and Het Huis van Bourgondië of Maastricht, Netherlands, will each present a section of the triptych, exploring the liberation from their own particular national viewpoint. One Yellow Rabbit's Blake Brooker will direct the Canadian portion; celebrated director Hans Werner Kroesinger will take the reins of the German section; and Feico Sobel, one of Holland's brightest young directors, leads the Dutch piece.
Friction's (contribution to the triptych)
- Featuring: David van Belle, Andy Curtis, Michael Green and Brad Payne
- Created by: The Cast
- Direction and Lighting by: Blake Brooker
- Sound Design: Richard McDowell
- Managing Producer: Stephen Schroeder
Performances
Calgary at the Big Secret Theatre - January 4 - 8, 2005Amsterdam at Theatre FRASCATI - May 4 - 7, 2005
Berlin at HEBBEL AM UFER's HAU 3 - May 10 & 11, 2005
Maastricht at HUIS VAN BOURGONDIE - May 13 - 18, 2005