The 2025 edition of Stages Festival, Eastern Front Theatre’s annual spring festival that “push the boundaries of what theatre can be,” opens with Fruit Machine, a physical theatre production from Fredericton-based Solo Chicken Productions that brings a dark and often hidden chapter of Canadian history centre stage.
Using movement, historical text, poetry, and projections, Fruit Machine explores the Canadian government’s campaign to investigate, monitor, and expel homosexuals from public service, the military, and the RCMP. Initially driven by a Cold War-induced paranoia of security risks, the play draws its name from the so-called “fruit machine,” a pseudoscientific device developed in the 1960s to ostensibly detect homosexuality, one of many tools used by authorities during a time of widespread surveillance and state-sponsored discrimination.
Other highlights at this year’s Stages Festival include Playing Fields, a participatory outdoor sound performance, Secret Ingredients, an experimental theatre performance disguised as a cake tasting and Les Moutons, a “carefully studied, surrealistic overview of sheep behaviour.”
The 2025 Stages Theatre Festival will take place May 22 and 23 and June 4 to 8, 2025. Visit easternfronttheatre.com for the complete listing of events, including showtimes, tickets, and information.