Theatre One's Fringe Flicks
by Brady Tighe
Continuing its tradition of edgy
and off-the-beaten-path cinema,
Fringe Flicks, presented by TheatreOne,
is showing Horse Boy, on
Apr. 11-12 at Avalon Cinemas. This
is the 10th season of Fringe Flicks,
proving that it’s a successful way to
show films that might not strike the
public eye otherwise.
The story of the film revolves
around a boy named Rowan Isaacson.
Isaacson was diagnosed with
autism in Apr. 2004, at the age of
two-and-a-half. The charming, animated
child had ceased speaking.
He retreated into himself for hours
at a time, screamed inconsolably for
no apparent reason, flapped his arms
and babbled. For the Isaacsons, as
for so many other parents, autism
seemed to have snatched away their
child’s soul. Rowan’s parents sought
out the best medical care for him,
but orthodox therapies had little effect
on Rowan.
Then came the day Rowan
ran away from his father, Rupert,
got through the fence of their
neighbour’s horse pasture, and in
amongst the hooves of the horse
herd. Rupert had stopped riding
since Rowan’s autism kicked in,
thinking it unsafe for his son to be
around horses. Now he froze, heart
in his mouth, praying Rowan would
not get trampled. Instead, the herd’s
boss horse, a notoriously grumpy
old mare named Betsy, pushed the
other horses away, bent her head to
Rowan, and began to lick and chew
with her lips: the equine sign of
submission. Rupert had never seen
a horse voluntarily make this obeisance
to a human before. Something
direct, something beautiful,
was clearly passing between boy
and horse.
So, Isaacson began to ride with
Rowan on Betsy every day, and
Rowan—amazingly—began to talk,
and engage with the outside world.
He asked himself, was there a place
on the planet that combined horses
and healing? He did some research:
in the country where the horse was
first domesticated, where nomadic
horse life is still practiced by most
of its people, is also the one country
where shamanism—healing at
its most raw and direct—is the state
religion: Mongolia.
What if he was to take Rowan
there, thought Rupert. Riding on
horseback from shaman to shaman?
What would happen?
A press release continues to
describe the film as part travel adventure,
part insight into shamanic
tradition, and part intimate look
at the autistic mind. In telling one
family’s extraordinary story, the
film gives voice to the thousands of
families who display amazing courage
and creativity every day in the
battle against this mysterious and
heartbreaking condition. Above
all, it gives insight into how, in life’s
darkest moments, one can find the
gateway to joy and wonder.
Single tickets are $11. To order,
contact TheatreOne at 250-754-
7587 or online at www.theatreone.org. Tickets may also be purchased
within one hour of show-times at
the Fringe Flick box office at the
Avalon Theatre. Screened Sun. Apr.
11 at 1, 4, and 7 p.m. and Mon. Apr.
12 at 7 p.m.