A guest post from Kris Nelson from London’s LIFT Festival goes behind the scenes at OUTstages. Nelson reflects on Lucy McCormick’s Triple Threat, which he programmed as the Festival Director at the Dublin Fringe in 2017. Triple Threat makes its North American debut in Victoria as part of OUTstages on February 1.

Lucy McCormick’s Triple Threat is virtuosic camp, cutting satire and equal parts hilarious and chillingly moving. We invited her and her fantastic go-go dancers to Dublin Fringe Festival in 2017 and co-presented the show with the excellent Project Arts Centre. Triple Threat needed to come to Dublin not just because it’s an excellent and urgent performance rooted firmly in the casual vibe aesthetic of classic Fringe – but also because it resounded with themes we were exploring and did it with incredible rigour. Under the shadow of Ireland’s oppressive antiabortion laws yet to be overturned, we were examining gender, bodily autonomy, and eros. Triple Threat is megalomaniac in its construction – Lucy insists on playing every part. And it’s radical in its outcome – Lucy’s megalomania liberates every character in the story of Jesus and Mary and churns the audience to a kind of frenzy you only usually experience at a metal gig. Or a gospel service. What Lucy offers is a liberation of the sensual and erotic. A liberation of oppression, especially gender oppression, bodily liberation and a liberation of the very story of Jesus and Mary. She does it with razor sharp precision, jaw-dropping dance moves and pop vocals that would shred the competition in any X Factor line-up. As I watched, several scenes elicited snorts of laughter and deliciously dirty chuckles. In at least one moment Lucy evoked that kind of startling tunnel vision you get when watching – no beholding – someone who has profoundly moved you. It’s not so much a must see, it’s a must experience. A daring, powerful and surprisingly personal tour de force.

-Kris Nelson

Director, Dramaturg and Artistic Director Kris Nelson has worked extensively in multi-disciplinary arts in Canada, where he lived until 2013, and Dublin for the past four years, leading the fully curated Fringe Festival. After 4 years at the helm, Kris left the Dublin Fringe Festival at the end of 2017, having curated over 300 shows during his time there and took on the role of Artistic Director at LIFT in April 2018.
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Triple Threat
Lucy McCormick
ONE NIGHT ONLY
Friday February 1, 9pm
Metro Studio – 1411 Quadra Street

Get tickets HERE

Triple Threat photo by The Other Richard