John Ellis

On Caravan: the Masks of the Whale Spirits John Ellis

Paul Kirby and Adriana Kelder have spent their lives in the theatre. In the late sixties, the couple who would later be called the Bonnie and Clyde of Canadian theater, helped run an alternative newspaper in Montreal. Charges of obscenity and sedition lead to their going on the lam and becoming the only known Canadian fugitives to flee to the U. S. during the Vietnam War. In the 70's, they helped found a theatre company known as The Caravan. Clydesdales provided the locomotion, and the wagons provided the shelter. They'd set up their tents and share original, environmentally themed theatre with the people along the way. They plodded along for 23 years. Then they decided to build a boat. It took four years. They lived in the boatyard, put the horses out to pasture, and became shipwrights with a desire to be sailors. Now it's time to take the show out on the seas.