Hangar-Sized Hall: Hay Bales and Animatronic Dinosaurs

hangar-sized hall: In the Ag Pavilion, the squeals of the Piglet Derby have fallen silent, according to Vancouver Observer. But there still lingers a whiff of hay bales, manure and something else; something implacable, disconsolate -- an intangible presence that refuses to be forgotten. No more neon, no more deepfried strawberries, animatronic dinosaurs or jousting horsemen. Audience members drift in, picking our way through the acres of parking lot puddles for tonight's performance of The Japanese Problem. At length, producer/director Joanna Garfinkel shows up to shepherd us into the hangar-sized hall. A far cry from standard theatre-going protocols no lobby, no ushers, no tickets.A couple of functionaries just check off our names on a list and tell us to wait on a wooden bench until they're ready for us much as the entry procedure might have been in 1942-43, when the PNE barn served as the holding pen for Japanese-Canadians uprooted from their expropriated West Coast en route to inland relocation camps where they were to be interned as enemy aliens. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.