We were in the middle of ranch country one autumn evening in 2016 and had no idea what kind of show to expect. Our friends who brought us weren't sure either. Eastend is a creative little town, but... steampunk??
The venue was an old church at the Spring Valley Guest Ranch belonging to a local B&B owner, concert promoter, farmer, cheese maker, and tailor named Jim Saville. It was a theatrical fashion show! 14 bedazzling steampunk costumes, designed and handmade by Jim himself.
What fun and unusual entertainment it was! A show-biz production out in the middle of the prairie with lights, music, and choreography and the models, all friends and neighbours, performed with pizzaz! They were historic characters with a steampunk interpretation... First Nations, cowboys, the military, homesteaders, upper-class Victorians, even Hutterites (actors I think, which I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of), all of them dancing on the stage, and later mingling at the after-party.
Steampunk refers to the industrial/mechanical/fantasy style with brass, chains, cogs and clock parts, metal bits and bullets that is somehow combined with a Victorian England flavour using velvet and lace, feathers and top hats. The aesthetic is a weird kind of retro futurism and a romantic vision of the past.
The masks and imaginary steam machines strapped on backs add a sense of dramatic unreality of a masquerade. It's all steampunk!
A truly beautiful life-sized horse was designed and welded by a local artist and rancher Grieta Krisjansons.
When I asked Jim Saville what gave him the idea for this project, he said a neighbour asked him to sew her a wedding dress, not a regular white dress which would have been beyond his skills, but a steampunk style. It was a new term for him, he made the dress and the theme kept rolling.
I love seeing creativity like this in unexpected corners of our province. Talented builders, artists, musicians, writers, inventors and thinkers that are enriching the lives of their family and community, but usually remain unknown to the rest of us.
Thanks for that great evening to Jim and his friends! And thanks to Stew and Cyndi for keeping tabs on the artistic pulse of Eastend, Saskatchewan. (I've heard hints about a Billy Bock concert coming up this summer 2021.)
