Welcome to the 3rd Annual Slime Conference. Join 100 animals, seven young translators, scientists and suits, and fellow humans and step just slightly in the future… Seated amongst the delegates, you might hear an otter swimming down an aisle, a dolphin whistling at your elbow or a seabird over your shoulder: animals too have something to say. We come together to face an insatiable creature, Slime, which, like facebookslime or googleslime, is taking over. Ask yourself, “Who is coming to save us?” The answer might surprise you….
It was commissioned by The Banff Centre, penned by Bryony Lavery, the acclaimed British playwright of Tony-nominated Frozen, and developed with the award-winning company The Only Animal. Director Kendra Fanconi says, “I first met Slime at the Playwrights’ Lab in Banff as they were short an actor and I stepped in. At that point Slime was only half-done, but I fell in love and every few months would write to Bryony and Ruth and ask if I could program it, when the Canadian rights ever became available… Bryony’s work premieres at British Theatre institutions like the National in London and I knew it could be some time. Eventually, a need came up to bring designers in to experiment and the process of design-based dramaturgy is second-nature to The Only Animal. We became development partners, and with ongoing support through 5 years with the Banff Centre, a play was born. When they offered us the World Premiere of Slime we were, as the Brits say, ‘chuffed’.”