Artist
Hope Thompson

© Hope Thompson, 2023. Photo Janet Kimber.

Canada
www.hopethompson.net

Hope Thompson is a playwright, filmmaker and writer. She is obsessed with mystery, film noir, camp and comedy and has written and directed several award-winning short films (It Happened In The StacksSwitch) and one-act plays (She Walks The LineStiff, Trapped!) in these genres. Her film, Switch, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and her recent play, Trapped! was published in the anthology, Queer/Play (2017), edited by Moynan King. Hope is currently at work on her first novel and on a play based on a night in the life of crime writer, Cornell Woolrich. Hope co-hosts the popular crime fiction reading series, Noir At The Bar, in Toronto.

Performance
Performance Club 5: The Talking Grave by Hope Thompson

“It’s not everyday you get to talk to the dead—and they answer.”

Hope Thompson

Join us for Performance Club 5, and this special “conversation” between famed noir writer Cornell Woolrich (deceased) and his interviewer, Hope Thompson.

In a rare, ‘one-on-one’ Hope Thompson interviews crime writer and father of noir, Cornell Woolrich (1903–1968). Thompson brings alive her obsessive fascination with both Woolrich’s writing and his life in this ‘tell-all-from-beyond-the-grave’ interview performance. A solitary and reclusive figure in life, Woolrich is similarly reticent in death, however, Thompson’s interview techniques draw out the writer, giving the Performance Club a window into the dark secrets, vulnerabilities and surprising humour of this often overlooked giant of 20th century crime fiction.

Cornell Woolrich’s seminal short story, Three O’clock, will be provided as a sample of the author’s work. In this thriller of marital revenge, a husband known only as “Stapp” plots the murder of his wife, only to have a series of surprise events send him spiralling into nail scratching despair.

THE GOLDEN BOOK
Join us for Performance Club and get your own Performance Club: THE SYLLABUS, a brand new addition to FADO’s Golden Book series (as always, designed by Lisa Kiss). This time, it’s bigger (it won’t fit in your pocket, think book bag) and it contains three performance texts and an incredible intro, entitled, This is a Queer Series… written by Moynan King.

CLUB TALK BACKS
Join us after each performance for a talk back with the artist and their fellow club artists.
September 10: Moe Angelos in conversation with David Bateman
September 12: Hope Thompson in conversation with Moe Angelos
September 19: David Bateman in conversation with Hope Thompson

Save your Thursdays in September for the ultimate trio of Queer Performance Clubs performed by Moe Angelos, Hope Thompson, and David Bateman.

Series
Performance Club

As a proposition for a performance or the framework for an actual book club, FADO’s Performance Club series redefines the historical and contemporary performance art canon, one book club, and one book, article, essay, or anthology at a time. Invited artists perform the role of book club facilitators, leading the audience through a performance of a reading, a reading performance, a performance about a book, or a bookish performance. This series is on-going. Sometimes we pick the book and invite an artist; sometimes we invite an artist and they pick a book. Just like a real book club, we ask the audience to read the suggested material before coming to the performance. But don’t worry, just like a real book club, no one ever does. 

Performance Club 1: Queer/Play
The book is edited by Moynan King. The performance is by Moe Angelos.
December 14–15, 2017

Performance Club 2: Valley of the Dolls by Keith Cole
January 20–February 20, 2018

Performance Club 3: 9Questions, an artist project by Gustaf Broms
That time we made our own book (2018).

Performance Club 4: Book Club: snowflakes in the echo chamber by Moe Angelos
September 10, 2019

Performance Club 5: The Talking Grave by Hope Thompson
September 12, 2019

Performance Club 6: Art Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, subtitle; Does This Giacometti Make Me Look Fat? by David Bateman
September 19, 2019

Series Purple

An ode to FADO's history, Series Purple is composed of a collection of purple fragrance materials dating back to the Roman Empire. Dense, intense, and meandering, this fragrance tells us non-linear stories.

Top Notes

huckleberry, violet

Middle Notes

cassis, lilac, heliotrope

Base Notes

orris root, purple sage, labdanum