Western Front, Vancouver (CB)
Developed during a three-month residency at the Matapédia train station in Quebec and the Acadian region of southeastern New Brunswick, Fish Tail is a thirty-minute one-woman show and installation.
Inspired by a 1989 New York Times article recounting a fishing expedition on the Matapédia River—detailing water temperatures, shifting currents, and the challenges of catching salmon on the fly—Fish Tail is structured around three unsent letters addressed to a compulsive fisherman, the Montréal bar Le Plongeoir, and the Matapédia River.
At Western Front, the epistolary narrative unfolded on a set composed of antique furniture, vintage fishing books, pheasant feathers, martini glasses, liquor bottles, a record player, fishing tackle, a dead fish, and other objects found at Western Front, creating an unsettling environment rich in symbology.
In Fish Tail, english versions of the orginal scrip were enriched by conversations with Matapédia locals, personal memories, and quotations from literature and film. A rhizomatic narrative unfolded through confessional poetic fragments exploring desire, time, seduction, and longing, interwoven with traditional Acadian drinking songs and choreography inspired by fly fishing techniques.
Fish Tail was presented on February 20th 2025, in the Grand Lux Hall at Western Front, in Vancouver, BC.
The performance was made possible with support from the Government of Canada.
Full video documentation is available upon request, through the Western Front archives.
Documentation curtosy of Western Front