MORDOR OF THE NORTH

Mordor rises in the north

By BRIAN BACK

Posted: June 17, 2008There is a nondescript section of I-94, just west of Johnson Creek, that passes over an underground river of black gold. Within months, a million barrels of crude oil daily will gush under the oblivious traffic. That’s almost 5% of America’s thirst.

Most of the oil will come from a tarry mix of sand and oil scattered over an area the size of Florida in Alberta, Canada. Originally called the tar sands, it’s rebranded as the more palatable oil sands.

While growing up in Canada, I watched the costly attempts to strip-mine the oil when technology was not up to the challenge and the low price of oil never justified it. Above $130 a barrel, after decades of ramping up the technology, the story has changed. Today, there is an oil rush around the town of Fort McMurray — dubbed Fort McMoney.

Crude Love and No More Lies

Vancouver duo’s tar-sands romance and Susan Freedman’s making light of the ageing process are but two openings this weekend at the Montreal Fringe Festival

PAT DONNELLY

The Gazette

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Love in the Alberta tar sands – between polar opposites. She drives a truck as big as an apartment building.

He’s a city-bred environmentalist who wants to stop the whole project and put people like her out of a job. Yet somehow, they work out their differences.

Sounds like a great scenario for a new Canadian movie. But at this stage, Crude Love is a play written and performed by Gillian and Russell Bennett, making its debut at the St. Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival. It’s but one of many premieres at the Montreal Fringe, which owns the first date on the fringe circuit calendar.

The Bennetts are no strangers to Montreal, or the circuit, which includes fringes in Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, London, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria – and, of course, Edmonton, the grandaddy of them all.

Gillian Bennett, 30, grew up in Edmonton. Russell, 35, was raised in Toronto. They both studied acting in New York, at the same school. But they met later, in Vancouver, where they now live – sort of. This summer they gave up their apartment and put their stuff in storage before heading out on the road. This is their first touring season as a married couple, having tied the knot on Tofino Beach last summer.