The Man that Got Away

A musical. A life. My family almost forgot to tell me about my great-uncle Jimmy. True story, or so I’m told. Jimmy grew up on a farm, on the Canadian prairies, in the Rosebud Valley, during the Great Depression. His older brothers were teenage mechanics, or outfielders on the local baseball team. But not Jimmy. At ten years old, Jimmy was Georgie Kempt’s star pupil in tap dance and acrobatics.

Jimmy: “O the sky is blue and the birds are too / And the rapeseed’s high and yellow / And I got no clue what I’m s’posed to do / So I stand on a hill and bellow / I gotta get the frick outta this goddamn craphole / Before I lose my flippin’ mind / Or throw myself into a combine / Fill the well fulla strychnine Hell! This place is so gay and not in a good way.” –Trevor Anderson, Berlinale