One-woman show Celexia dazzles at the Calgary Fringe Festival
By Nazeefa Ahmed, August 15 2023—
On Aug. 3, playwright, actress and University of Calgary alumni Alexa McGinn performed her solo show Celexia at the Fellowship Hall in Lantern Church for the Calgary Fringe Theatre Festival. In the heart of Inglewood, McGinn shared her love for words through a captivating story that left audiences reflecting on their relationship to the classics.
Delivering an hour-long monologue is no easy task, but McGinn knows how to move audiences. Her graceful dancing and emotion-packed soliloquy quite literally take the words from the page to the stage. There was not one dry moment in her performance, a testament to her brilliant writing and delivery.
The autobiographical show follows protagonist Alexa finding and falling in love with words while learning to live with dyslexia, which she describes as some psychologist merely seeing a word in her rather than her entire being. She uses the Cueva de las Manos — translating to “the Cave of Hands” — in Argentina to describe the human desire to leave a mark in the world, to leave a legacy.
The show is organized into chapters of Alexa’s life, from being placed in her school’s special education class to feeling medicalized by her dyslexia diagnosis. Through her personal journey, Alexa learns to be okay with being neurodivergent and seeing it as a strength rather than an inconvenient weakness. Quoting one of the Bronte sisters, McGinn reminds audience members to take pride in themselves and how they interact with the classics.
“‘I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will,’ ” said McGinn, echoing a famous line from Jane Eyre.
McGinn cleverly refers to literary legends of the past such as Gertrude Stein, Hemingway and the Bard himself, poking fun and making her point — classics are not enjoyed in the same way by all people. Her character Alexa found that in school she could not interact with stories in the way that she wanted and had to learn that over time.
In an hour-long show, McGinn comments on the medicalization of neurodiversity, the stifling nature of the education system and her personal journey breaking free of societal bonds. Her love of literature took me back to my days in the classroom, reading Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy, wondering why the bard was so revered, feeling frustrated because I just didn’t get it. Celexia was a walk down memory lane and a reminder of the human desire to leave a mark.
To learn more about McGinn’s work, visit her website.