It all started innocently enough – a simple hang-out between musicians Duncan Cox and Sharon Bajer, sharing songs they’d written. One song in particular caught Bajer’s ear. “He played me a song about a depressed vampire who was tired of living forever,” she recounted in an interview on Morning Light. “And we thought, ‘Oh, there’s so much in that. That’s such an interesting idea.’" That idea became Afterlight, a vampire-themed musical first presented by Bajer and Cox’s company The Keep Theatre in association with Rainbow Stage back in 2023. The show is getting remounted in St. Boniface this week for Halloween season and represents the ongoing process of workshopping the show so that it is the best it can possibly be. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rainbow Stage (@rainbowstage) “There’s always stuff that we went, ‘Here’s an idea. We just didn’t have time to implement it this time,’” says Cox. “Nobody gets points for a long musical.” While cuts have been made to clarify the plot and shorten the run time, Cox notes that many of the core elements of the show and its exploration of the relationship between vampire and elderly woman remain. “It’s unrealistic for the relationship to just already be there,” he explains. “You need to leave time to grow, but not too much time. It’s a very fine line.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rainbow Stage (@rainbowstage) As the process of honing Afterlight has progressed, Bajer has reflected on how the work has also benefitted from space and freedom both as performers and creators. “I think when you first premiere a project, any new play, you hold onto it tighter because you haven’t allowed it to be free,” she says. “I think we’ve really matured as a writing team in the last two years just by leaving it and then returning to it and going, ‘Do we really need this? No. Can we tighten this? Yes.’ And I think that’s just a matter of time.” Bajer is hoping that it’s just a matter of time before the show can go beyond the city of Winnipeg and gain more exposure. “We spend hours and years making these musicals, but we’re kind of isolated,” she explains. “People who may be able to pick them up or get them out into the world, they don’t come here and they aren’t here. So, when we did the show two years ago, we were happy with it, but musicals also can only develop if you do them a few times.” Audiences can see the next running of Afterlight at the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain from October 24 to November 2. Showtimes, tickets and more information are available through Rainbow Stage’s website.