40 Below

What If Theatre—MTC Up the Alley

Several years ago I was coming home extremely late from a party. It was cold, my phone was dying, and I was far away from my bed. I got on a bus, and started trying to plot my way home. When the bus driver told me that his route was coming to an end, he must have been able to tell I was anxious, because he asked me where I had to go. Luckily, I was going into Osborne Village, and he was going back to the depot. So he killed all the lights, let me ride up front, and chatted with me all the way to the end of my street to make sure I got home safe. This to me has always been Winnipeg Transit.

I was thinking about this experience through this show, and that bus drivers are doing their best to keep us safe. I expected to walk into a comedy, as shows about Winnipeg generally are, but was met with a heartfelt exploration of trauma, and the fear of moving on. The performances were genuine, featuring some of the best drunk acting I’ve seen in a long time, and made the piece feel almost like a love letter to the eccentricities of transit patrons. Here and there the writing could be clunky, but it was a passion project come to life.

Arden Pruden