New identity is just a click away in local play

Online dating explored by Fringe play Identity.com

Do you find yourself sitting at home on a Saturday night, feeling lonely, directionless, and maybe even a little pathetic?

Do you continue to look for love, despite how futile your efforts may seem?

Maybe to find love you need a new image, a new brand. Maybe you need Identity.com.

Locally written and produced, Identity.com is a tale of how the Internet can warp our sense of identity and twist our personal relationships. It is part of this year’s Winnipeg Fringe Festival and will show at MTC Up the Alley, Venue 2.

Directed by West End product Darcy Fehr, the two-person play features Michael Hargraves as the main character.

“He has come to a decision in his life that he needs to recreate himself in order to find love,” Fehr said.

“He stumbles upon a site on the Internet called Identity.com and figures it’s his way of giving himself a makeover. However, he doesn’t know where to start.”

In an effort to recreate himself, Hargraves seeks the help of childhood friend Emily Green, played by East Kildonan resident Gwen Collins.

From there, both Michael and Emily venture into the online world, finding that everything isn’t quite what it seems on the net.

“I wanted to do this play because I immediately identified with the false representation that people project to the world through the internet. It’s a world of self-promotion, voyeurism and gossip,” said Fehr.

In addition to his work as a director, Fehr is also an actor. He stars in Guy Maddin’s most recent offering, My Winnipeg.

“Guy Maddin grew up in the West End and the movie is all about 800 Ellice,” Fehr said. “It’s all about piecing together his love and hate of Winnipeg and trying to escape it.”

Fehr was originally cast to play Ledge Man, a character in a fictitious TV series mused about in the film.

However, after doing his first edit of the film, Maddin decided that the story needed a series of shots to hold the story together. That prompted him to ask Fehr to also play the director as he rides a train out of Winnipeg in a dreamlike state.

“Why Guy ever hired me to play him, I’ll never know, but I’m honoured and touched to be able to play someone who is brilliant and is a Winnipeg treasure,” Fehr said.

Fehr says his work on multiple Maddin movies havemade him think about genre in alternate ways.

For example, Identity.com was originally written as a comedy by St. Vital resident Brent Hirose, but now it leans more towards drama.

“When people label something comedy there’s a certain style of acting people bring and I like to remove that from the beginning,” said Fehr. “I like to take out any hamming that actors bring to the table.”

Fehr says he takes that approach to accentuate the real-life comedy that exists in all our lives, instead of manufactured comedy that can sometimes be akin to knock-knock jokes.

“I kind of believe that when people behave in a way to create drama, there’s comedy underneath that,” said Fehr, who points to his role as Ledge Man as a perfect example of that idea.

“It was a series about a guy who was committing suicide because life wasn’t worth living, but it was portrayed in a comedic way. So maybe there’s a rub off from Guy’s idea of drama and comedy.”

Hirose, who also plays the main character of Michael in Identity.com, says his motivation to write the play came years ago when Myspace was an emerging trend.

“The incentive behind it was when I had friends get involved in Internet dating. Until then, (the) Internet always seemed to be separate from real life,” Hirose said.

While Hirose considers himself an actor first, he has enjoyed considerable success as a writer.

He is a two-time winner of the Carol Shields Instaplay Competition, which provides participants 90 minutes to write a play. During last year’s Fringe Festival, his play was nominated for the Harry Rintoul Award, given to the best new local play annually.

Hirose, who has gone on a couple of Internet dates himself, says the aim of Identity.com isn’t trying to scare people away from online dating.

His complaint is with people who think their virtual identity will take the place of their real one.

“Regardless of the opportunities the Internet opens up to people, you still have to be yourself if you want to make changes to your life,” he said.