Marginalia

Synopsis

Marginalia is an interactive play that interweaves soliloquies by three characters: Olympic hopeful, Ben Johnson, the descendant of a young pioneer woman, and a Jamaican-Canadian filmmaker. Elegant and measured, this piece explores notions of cultural diversity as the characters reflect on thoughts of family expectations, the price of failure, and the freedom of running. The central story depicts the spectacle of Ben Johnson’s charity race with a stock car, a standard bred and a trotter in 1998 after his fall from grace. The story takes place in a wet and muddy Prince Edward Island, Canada. We find him, the infamous Olympian, choosing between the sublime and the ridiculous.