Theatre

This month Theatre Aquarius will present BOOM X, written, directed, and performed by Rick Miller, offering local audiences the chance to experience a highly acclaimed solo performance that explores the cultural, political, and musical landscapes of the late twentieth century. This one man play is the second instalment in Miller’s BOOM trilogy, a theatrical project that examines the intertwined histories of successive generations through popular culture and lived experience. Drawing on music, politics, and media, the play focuses on how a generation absorbed and responded to a rapidly changing world.

At its core, BOOM X is a multidisciplinary work that synthesizes theatre, history, and popular music into a single, fast moving performative experience. Over approximately 100 minutes, Miller embodies more than one hundred characters while moving through the cultural terrain of disco, the oil crisis, punk rock, video games, Watergate, the Cold War, and the second British invasion in popular music. The scale of the undertaking is impressive, yet the production never loses sight of its human focus. What emerges is both an informal historical survey and a study of how individual memory intersects with collective experience.

For many Hamilton theatre goers, Rick Miller is not an unfamiliar presence. Some will remember MACHOMER, his wildly inventive Shakespeare and Simpsons mash-up that played at Theatre Aquarius in April 2008. Others may recall him in a very different context, performing as one of the brothers in JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAM COAT on the Aquarius stage in December 2000. I saw them both, and still recall the productions fondly.

If MACHOMER highlighted Miller’s comic precision and vocal dexterity, BOOM X reveals the depth and maturity of his storytelling. The play concentrates on the years from 1969 to 1995, tracing the emergence of Generation X during a period marked by cultural upheaval and technological acceleration. From the idealism of Woodstock to the anxieties and possibilities of the early digital age, the production charts how global events filtered into everyday life and helped shape personal identity.

This is not a history lesson delivered from a distance. The play unfolds at a thrilling pace, with Miller shifting between characters through changes in voice, posture, and emotional tone, often in the space of a few seconds. Political leaders, musicians, parents, teenagers, and cultural archetypes appear in quick succession, forming a vivid mosaic of a generation coming of age amid uncertainty. Audiences do not need to have lived through these decades to connect with the work. The pleasure lies in the immediacy of the performance and in the clarity with which complex moments are rendered human and accessible.

Visually, BOOM X is dynamic and carefully composed. Projections and sound design create a fluid sense of time and place, allowing the audience to move rapidly across decades without losing narrative focus. The technology supports the storytelling rather than competing with it, reinforcing the idea that personal memory and mediated history are inseparable. The result is a production that feels both intimate and expansive, anchored by the presence and skill of the performer at its centre.

Music plays a central role in the production; with the songs functioning as emotional anchors; marking moments of hope, rebellion, confusion, and loss. Rather than serving as nostalgic decoration, the soundtrack reveals how deeply music embeds itself in memory and how it can define entire phases of a life. Miller’s musical range is extensive, and his ability to shift seamlessly between spoken narrative and song gives the performance a sense of momentum and emotional coherence.

The world premiere of BOOM X took place at Theatre Calgary in January 2019, establishing the piece as a major work; well suited to large regional stages. Its subsequent touring life has only reinforced that reputation. This current presentation at Theatre Aquarius, is followed next month by performances at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario; demonstrating that the play is a strong choice for regional theatres. It offers ambition without excess, intellectual substance without heaviness, and broad audience appeal without compromise. For audiences encountering Miller for the first time, the play is an ideal introduction to a uniquely engaging theatrical voice.

At its heart, Miller’s play asks how recent history has shaped the people we have become. By the end of the evening, audiences are likely to find themselves laughing, reflecting, and unexpectedly moved. Whether you recognize every reference or encounter this era as inherited history, BOOM X promises a richly engaging night of theatre, and it is well worth making the time to experience it live at Aquarius.

THEATRE