Letter from the creator:

RUNNING OUT is a one woman show. The development of this work started at One Yellow Rabbit's (OYR)Summer Lab Intensive in 2007. I'd not produced anything since 2005 and had been feeling stuck as a creator. The summer lab is a wonderful opportunity to work in an incredibly supportive environment. I received funding from both the Winnipeg and Manitoba Arts council in order to attend the lab. OYR is a company based in Calgary that specializes in movement/text performative theatre work. All of my work is a combination/ amalgamation of contemporary dance and acting. So it was great to work with highly experienced, high caliber artists of my field of interest to start my process.

The original idea for RUNNING OUT developed out of my age and gender and non-parent status. I'll be 43 by the time the Winnipeg Fringe opens. Many of my contemporaries have never had children and have an irresistible urge to make it happen now. They've had careers and now they watch the sand run out of the glass as their eggs dry up and the ticking of their biological clock gets ever louder. The project evolved to include a second character who's in her teens and not really sure how this whole pregnancy thing works. The two characters are juxtaposed against each other and never meet but there is a connection.

Part of what has been particularly challenging during the creation process is that my director, Jolie Lesperance, has been pregnant and she delivered a beautiful baby girl 6 weeks early. We'd hoped to have most of the rehearsal process done before the birth but her little girl (Ezri)had other plans. After a six week hiatus we've just recently got back to work together. Ezri was an interesting element in the process before her birth. And now that she sometimes is present for rehearsals outside the womb, she voices her opinions on the project. Regardless of whether or not Ezri is at rehearsals her presence has coloured the process and enriched the project.

Ruth Baines
Ruthable Productions

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Manitoba Arts Council and the Winnipeg Arts Council in the creation of this show.

 

Running Out

Tackling infertility is a difficult subject at the best of times. As the topic for a Fringe play, it's probably not the first choice. Throw in dance and spoken word and thanks to Ruth Baines you've got an incredibly powerful performance that's emotional and honest. Baines plays a 40-something mother attempting to get pregnant and a teenager who gets pregnant by accident. Baines combines movement and speech to convey their stories. I was moved to tears.

Liz Hover July 24, 2008 UPTOWN Magazine

CBC Winnipeg Fringe Audience Reviews 2008

Using music, interpretive dance and words, Ruth Baines delivers the touching stories of two women, each at opposite ends of the age-old fertility dilemma. Music and dance underscore the women's desperation as hopes for a good result in each case slowly fade. The words describe beautifully common attitudes and do make you wonder why women continue to allow society to set them up for these situations.

Posted by: Laurie Potovsky-Beachell | July 21, 2008 01:14 PM

Ruth Baines weaves between the two characters beautifully with humour and empathy. Through their struggles, she brings up the cruel ironies that life sometimes has and poses difficult questions with the realizations that often there are no clear answers, or happy endings. Very powerful work, and I highly recommend it.

4 out of 5

Posted by: Liz Cooper | July 22, 2008 08:25 PM

RUNNING OUT

Ruthable Productions

Winnipeg Free Press, Sunday, July 20, 2008

Carolyn, who is in her 40's and desperate to be a mother, is running out of eggs- and money to pay for in vitro fertilization attempts. Jenny, a naïve teenager from a religious family is running away from terrifying responsibility as she finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy. Winnipeg's Ruth Baines, the creator of this well paced hour-long solo show, alternates between the two characters in a poignant exploration of the cruel ironies of fertility and timing. Her portrayal of the older woman is more believably fleshed out, tugging at our heartstrings with Carolyn's yearning to feel life inside her. Baines expresses that longing in dance interludes, giving heartfelt physicality to the jumble of hopefulness and emptiness felt by women who are trying to conceive. Baines's Writing and acting could both use more emotional poetry and more character depth to avoid caricature. But there is aching truth here. Baines taps into the anguish we all feel when our bodies don't stick to the life script we've laid out. In that sense, Running Out is universal.

Alison Mayes

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Ruthable Productions
Email : ruthbaines@hotmail.com