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

The 1960s saw the Royal Canadian Mounted Police double down on their already aggressive campaign to eliminate homosexuals from the civil service. Driven by cold war induced paranoia of security risks the RCMP pointed their attention at the queer communities for their perceived “character weaknesses”. Taking 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 with, Sue a talented woman with a bright future, and Yvette a young woman still looking for her community. All struggling 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.