Afterlight shines again

Two years after it premièred inside the Salle Pauline-Boutal, a bloodsucking romantic musical written by and starring Sharon Bajer and Duncan Cox is alive again.

Presented by Rainbow Stage and the Keep Theatre Company, Afterlight, which earned a 4 1/2 star review from the Free Press in 2023, tells the story of a 500-year-old vampire (Cox) who finds unexpected and meaningful kinship with an insomniac 85-year-old woman (Bajer) who’s hungry for human connection.

A comedic two-hander with an all-original soundtrack, Afterlight is returning to the Salle Pauline Boutal — named for the longtime artistic director of Théâtre Cercle Molière — in refined form, says Bajer.

You might call it a revamp.

“Part of the reason we wanted to do this again was that in the development of new musicals, you learn so much by doing the first production, and we certainly learned a lot,” says Bajer, whose most recent stage performances include a hospice volunteer in Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s staging of Casey and Diana.

About five months ago, Bajer says she and Cox, who composed the music, reunited to watch archival footage of their 2023 production, snipping away excess dialogue and tightening up the first act after taking an objective look at the original.

“We wanted to really pace it up,” she says.

Distance from her character, Wanda, also gave Bajer a chance to deepen her understanding of the character’s worldview and personal troubles, which stem from the loss of her spouse and most of the people she knew and loved — a similar struggle experienced by Cox’s Razvan, who remembers the taste of Ivan the Terrible’s blood with a blend of nostalgia and a bite of sadness.

“I think like any project, when you get to leave it for a few years, it always deepens when you return. There’s something in returning to these friends that allows them to sink a little deeper into your bones,” says Bajer, who was announced this week as the director of The Perfect Man, a new musical from Sara Kreindler set for a May 2026 run at the Gargoyle Theatre.

Running until Nov. 2, Afterlight is directed by Jillian Willems, musically directed by Paul De Gurse and choreographed by Joseph Sevillo, with production design by Anika Binding. The six-piece band, led by pianist De Gurse, features Dan Nemez (guitar), Matt Kozicki (bass), Brendan Thompson (percussion), Karen Barg (violin) and Déverson Correia (cello).

Tickets ($45 adults, $40 seniors and students) are available at rainbowstage.ca.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca