Supermarket, one of Kensington Market’s cherished music venues, has become the source of inspiration for a unique concert experience featured in the unconventional venue category at this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival. What makes it even more extraordinary is that the very venue hosting this event is none other than Supermarket itself.
In 2020, amidst the COVID lockdowns, writer and director Jackson Doner found himself alone in Toronto while his friends were leaving the city to wait out the lockdown. Doner found community at Supermarket’s Big Fam Jam. Led by talented musician Jackson Stienwall this inclusive open mic jam session became a weekly gathering every Tuesday, where Doner found a supportive community just when he needed it the most.
By the summer of 2021, the large capacity of the venue allowed for socially distanced events and Doner quickly developed close friendships with fellow regulars. He was so inspired by the energy and passion of the environment which lead him to pen the script for Retrograde.
This production revolves around four fictional characters, reminiscent of Kensington’s vibrant community, who come together to form a band. Seeking solace and connection after enduring the challenges of the initial year of COVID lockdowns, they find refuge in a dilapidated concert venue that hosts a weekly jam session.
Doner says the characters are not based on any specific person that he connected with in the Big Fam Jam community, but rather collectively inspired by the amalgamation of 20 or more friends.
Recalling his personal experience at the Big Fam Jam, Doner says “we all fell in love with each other very quickly.” In fact, Doner met his partner Tara Mulcahy at the Jam, a born and raised Torontonian who is very involved in the arts community. Now she is the producer of Retrograde, and the social media manager for Dead Raccoon, the theater company behind the production.
Founded by Doner in 2021, Dead Raccoon develops stories traditionally deemed “non theatrical” into performances that blur the line of different artistic mediums. The name is a reference to Conrad, the martyred Toronto trash-panda turned viral internet meme, which Doner feels is an apt analogy for the adaptability of the company’s creative work.
As intended, Retrograde is a cross between a grounded stage play and an underground concert. It’s a story about artists who are starved for community, in the same way Doner was when he attended his first Big Fam Jam. The characters in Retrograde ultimately save one another from the trauma of social isolation, the same way the Supermarket community saved Doner.
The colourful personalities of Retrograde are brought to life by four actors, Hilary Wheeler as “Barber”, Chloe Castrucci as “Cyan”, Anthony Palermo as “Bo”, and James Llewellyn Evans as “Kale.” The creative team also includes director and composer Quinlan Shearer, dramaturg Chris Johnson, stage manager Patrick Lynn, and intimacy director Avery Rose.
The cast is comprised of actors that range in age from their early twenties — recent graduates of university programs — to those in their early thirties, reentering the active career scene post-COVID. The production serves as the Toronto Fringe debut for some of the actors involved.
Evans is a Newmarket actor with experience in film, theater and television. Like his character Kale, he’s had a pretty chaotic life. “Kale has fallen on hard times, seemingly for a long time, and that’s something I can relate to,” says Evans. He describes his character as someone who based a lot of his identity on the people around him until COVID made that impossible. “He hasn’t quite rejoined reality yet,” he says.
Castrucci is an actor, writer, dancer and singer from the Mississauga area. She describes her character Cyan as a person going through the process of trying on different identities to see which one fits. “I definitely went through an era of my life where it was like the floating zone, and only recently I feel that I’ve really cemented who I am,” says Castrucci. Like her character, she also looks up to her older sister.
Wheeler is a Chinese-Canadian actor-musician from Victoria, BC. She plays the character Barber, the older sister to Cyan. Wheeler describes her character as a moody person haunted by her past. “I relate to that teen punk angst that lives inside me whenever I listen to Marianas Trench,” she says. Wheeler has been a drummer for 16 years and will be performing drums in Retrograde.
Palermo is a queer actor, director, writer/composer and producer from Richmond Hill. They are co-producing another Fringe play titled Featherhead. Palermo describes their character Bo as an outsider who really just wants to fit in and find a family. “I really resonate with that,” says Palermo.
Doner is from Waterloo and studied acting at The Creative School at TMU. Having established himself as a writer and director, he says that one of the biggest complaints in Toronto’s theater industry is that young people don’t watch performances anymore. He hopes that the musical experience of Retrograde will draw a crowd of peers; locals who already spend their weekdays seeking live music.
Since the members of Supermarket’s Big Fam Jam don’t yet know what Retrograde is about, Doner is particularly excited for them to see it. He says that while the Big Fam Jam is a musical event, it’s foremost about community and this play is in essence, a love letter to Kensington Market and the local music scene.
Retrograde will run between July 5 to 16 at Supermarket Bar & Variety at 268 Augusta Ave.
