“Which is the greater treason? Treason to your country, or treason to your friends?”

Fruit Machine begins in the 1960s as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police double down on their already aggressive campaign to eliminate homosexuals from the civil service, Military and RCMP, and spans decades ahead.  Driven by cold war induced paranoia of security risks, the RCMP point their attention at queer communities for their perceived ‘character weaknesses’. Using historical text, real-life accounts, poetry, and movement, Fruit Machine tells the story of hundreds through the bodies of four: Harold, a man who believes he’s found the perfect balance between his personal and professional life, Herbert a man pushed into a corner by the very institution he swore allegiance to, Sue a talented woman with a bright future, and Yvette a young woman still looking for her community. All struggle to avoid the watchful eyes, and clicking shutters of the RCMP’s invasive lens. 

Intimacy turned into evidence. How can you feel safe when the watchdogs of democracy have made you public enemy number one? 

Fruit Machine, the debut creation from Director Alex Rioux in collaboration with Solo Chicken Productions, is both a haunting look at the harm paranoia-driven policy can do to vulnerable communities, and a memorial to the brave and powerful queer individuals who resisted an insidious, dehumanizing security campaign.