Theatre Free Radical

08/19/2025

"Beautifully haunting"; "poetic, deep, and chilling"; "gripping": First reviews are in for Orphan Well at the Edmonton Fringe!

We have 5 more performances (Venue #13, the SERVUS Credit Union Théâtre - 8627 91st Street NW):

Tuesday, Aug 19, 5:15 pm
Wednesday, Aug 20, 8:45 pm
Thursday, Aug 21, 7:00 pm
Friday, Aug 22 1:45 pm
Sunday, Aug 24, 6:00 pm

Read on for more of what our reviewers said and to learn more about the play:

Reviews from the Edmonton Fringe site:

Orphan Well was beautifully haunting. With only three actors and no more set or props than a few poles, this show gave an incredibly unique and dark story relevant to not just Alberta, but the whole world. The show speaks to how cults abuse people, how people, especially women, are affected by trauma, and how the Alberta oil & gas industry impacts the environment and the people living on it…. The performance was poetic, deep, and chilling, and I will surely remember it for a long time.
Ari Mitchell, AYTC

Very gripping story, and they did a good job maintaining tension… performances were great—varied and distinct from each other. Several plots were ongoing but they weaved them together well… Overall, a really solid horror play.
Espen W

About the play:

Katie works for the Orphan Well Association, a group tasked with cleaning up the thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells in Alberta. One night, working on a well near the compound of Peter, a spiritual leader who has been accused of sexual improprieties with members of his congregation, she hears the desperate voices of women from deep underground. Determined to investigate, Katie is sent deep down her own personal well as she tries both to escape the influence of Peter and deal with her own trauma, even as an apocalyptic wildfire is drawing ever closer.

Inspired by current events including the debate over responsibility for well clean up; the allegations surrounding a controversial Alberta spiritual leader and the Hockey Canada trial, Orphan Well is a ticking-clock thriller that, in a time when the world (or at least a good corner of ours) is literally on fire, misinformation reigns, and populist politicians and demagogues have attracted cultlike followings, places faith under the microscope, asking who, outside the orphan well that is each of us, we can and should trust.

Len Falkenstein

08/08/2025

Theatre Free Radical is coming soon to the Edmonton Fringe Festival, August 14-24, with Orphan Well, a new play by Len Falkenstein starring Jake Martin, Rebekah Chassé and Mary Walker, and featuring an original score by Devin Rockwell.

About the play:

Katie works for the Orphan Well Association, a group tasked with cleaning up the thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells in Alberta. One night, working on a well near the compound of Peter, a spiritual leader who has been accused of sexual improprieties with members of his congregation, she hears the desperate voices of women from deep underground. Determined to investigate, Katie is sent deep down her own personal well as she tries both to escape the influence of Peter and deal with her own trauma, even as an apocalyptic wildfire is drawing ever closer.

Following in our company’s tradition of works that explore urgent issues through plays that are both politically and theatrically provocative, Orphan Well explores the often intertwined toxic legacies of patriarchy and the environmental devastation caused by fossil fuel extraction. As Qajaq Robinson, a commissioner for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has said, citing the prevalence of sexual assaults committed by transient workers in the “man camps” of the oil and gas and mining industries, “How you treat the land reflects how you treat women.”

Inspired by current events in which the narrative of these legacies has played out both locally (the debate over responsibility for well clean up; the allegations surrounding a controversial Alberta spiritual leader) and nationally (the Hockey Canada trial), Orphan Well is, in a broader sense, a ticking-clock thriller that, in a time when the world (or at least a good corner of ours) is literally on fire, misinformation reigns, and populist politicians and demagogues have attracted cultlike followings, places faith under the microscope, asking who, outside the orphan well that is each of us, we can and should trust.

Orphan Well will be performed at Venue #13, the SERVUS Credit Union Théâtre - 8627 91st Street NW

Thursday, Aug 14, 11:30 pm
Saturday, Aug 16, 8:45 pm
Sunday, Aug 17, 10:30 pm
Monday, Aug 18, 12:00 pm
Tuesday, Aug 19, 5:15 pm
Wednesday, Aug 20, 8:45 pm
Thursday, Aug 21, 7:00 pm
Friday, Aug 22 1:45 pm
Sunday, Aug 24, 6:00 pm

Photos: Mary Walker

11/11/2023

Photos from Theatre New Brunswick's production of Wood Buffalo by Len Falkenstein. There are two more performances in Fredericton, Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 2 PM, followed by 6 stops across NB next week!

09/07/2023

After taking a break for several years, Theatre Free Radical is back, (sort of) with a new play by Len Falkenstein, premiering this fall at Theatre New Brunswick!

A world premiere production by Fredericton playwright Len Falkenstein.

07/09/2023

06/30/2023

Bard in the Barracks' productions of Coriolanus and Much Ado About Nothing run through July 9. If you've been waiting for a dry day to see Coriolanus, tonight's your night! Full info at www.bardinthebarracks.com

02/11/2023

07/26/2022