17 avril 2015
The Suburban15 avril 2015
Par Walter Lyng
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Jacob Tierney, the local filmmaker behind projects such as The Trotsky and Good Neighbours, is currently wrapping up rehearsals on the Segal Centre’s upcoming production of Travesties — his first outing as a stage director. Set to run from April 12 to May 3, the play presented to Tierney a chance to work within different parameters than he’s become used to.
“The major difference is the time you get to rehearse and go over the text, which is something you don’t really get with films — they’re more immediate and happen very quickly,” he says. “Here, to be given a month to just figure this play out is such a treat.”
The Tom Stoppard-scripted comedy conjures a fictional meeting of three of the 20th Century’s most revolutionary minds — communist leader Vladimir Lenin, Irish author James Joyce and Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara, in Zurich, Switzerland at the height of World War I.
“The story is actually a confluence of truisms,” he says. “During the First World War, all of these famous folk did live in Zurich. They were refugees. Joyce was there. Lenin was there. And Tzara was there as well. That’s were Dadaism kind of began.”
The play’s protagonist, Henry Carr, remembers these historical events within the framework of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, with all these real life characters re-enacting the iconic parts. “What Stoppard is doing is taking a minor consular official who, in real life, actually did get into a lawsuit with James Joyce over 25 Francs, and extrapolated from that a man who is remembering — and sometimes remembering poorly — his experiences during that time.”
A cast of eight has been assembled to bring Stoppard’s script to life. As Carr, Greg Ellwand is joined by Martin Sims as Tzara, Jon Lachlan Stewart as Joyce and Daniel Lillford as Lenin. Ellen David, Pierre Brault, Anne Cassar and Chala Hunter round off the ensemble. “We cast really terrific people, some of whom I knew and some I didn’t,” says Tierney. “Everybody was pretty much on the same page from day one. I laid out my take on what this was and everybody was into it. They were cast because, in the audition, they were the people who hit the comedy beats the best.
“I believe the comedy beats and the story beats are the same thing. The comedy can’t become languid and the story can’t be forgotten. The most important thing to get right was the tone; to make sure we were hitting the Oscar Wilde note.”
And while attempting to emulate the comedic timing of Wilde may sound like a daunting task, Tierney says the groundwork was laid out by the great writing of Stoppard. “Here’s the thing; Tom Stoppard is also a master. He’s done all the heavy lifting for us. We just do his pace and we’re fine. For my money, Stoppard is the great living playwright, and a piece like this just reminds you of that because he’s as funny as Oscar Wilde. If you just trust in him, you’re doing yourself a big favour.”
For more information, visit www.segalcentre.org