Over the past decade, Ingrid Hansen has transformed into 11-year-old Kitt more than 100 times for the play she co-wrote called Little Orange Man.
Her Kitt is a hyperactive student who longs to enter her grandpa’s dreams, and places an ad on Craigslist to enlist strangers to witness her surrealism.
The strangers, in this case, are the audience members who take an active role in Kitt’s crazy story and landscape. “We almost have a cult following at this point,” Hansen told The Tri-City News. “I see people who have been to seven or eight shows because it’s never the same. I get deeper in it, too.”
Opening at Coquitlam’s Evergreen Cultural Centre on Thursday for four shows over three days, Little Orange Man has won countless awards at festivals across the country including at PuSH and the Victoria Fringe Fest.
Hansen said the crowds get hooked on Kitt’s narrative as she unravels the contents of her lunch bag, of which some turn into puppets. Shadow-play is employed while Kitt also sings with a mandolin about having ADD.
Speaking from Ottawa last Friday — where Snafu, the company she co-founded — presented its Snack Music at the Undercurrents Festival and Table Top Tales at the National Arts Centre — Hansen said Little Orange Man can be enjoyed by all ages. “For kids, they get it on a different level but, for adults, it lives a bit in the world of the Muppets,” she said, “but it’s good because the motto for our shows has been: Rated ‘E’ for everyone.”
• Little Orange Man runs Feb. 22 to 24 at the Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam). Call the box office at 604-927-6555 or visit evergreenculturalcentre.ca for tickets at $33/$28/$15.
jcleugh@tricitynews.com
