Much like firefighting itself, conveying aspects of one’s life to an audience requires a certain kind of mettle. In In the Fire, Holly Treddenick manages to do just that. From the stands of its late October run, reviewer Jackie Houghton walks us through the show’s emotional journey.

Sometimes you see a show that is so personal to the performer’s experience that it is difficult to connect with it. You can enjoy the actual performance, but the visceral, personal meaningfulness of the story may be lost on you. In the Fire, a solo aerial/dance act performed by Holly Treddenick of Femmes du Feu Creations, is a show about Holly’s father. It is about her. It is about trauma. It is about fire. It is a show that connects with its audience deeply. The first time I saw In the Fire was at the Toronto Rhubarb Festival in 2019. It was an early work-in-progress showing, lasting about 20 minutes. That performance brought me to tears. Admittedly, I have some childhood trauma related to fire. My father was badly burned in an indus...