March 18, 2014
The GazetteFebruary 28, 2014
By Pat Donnelly
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Artistic producer is stepping down, but not before making his directorial debut
MONTREAL — Segal Centre artistic producer Paul Flicker, who recently announced his departure from the venue, is about to make his debut as a director before he goes, with David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross.
Choosing a Pulitzer Prize-winning play is a good way to start. Flicker, who has been producing shows at the Segal Centre for more than 13 years, has learned a few things along the way.
The second important one being: Get the best actors you can afford.
One of Canada’s foremost leading men of stage and screen, R.H. Thomson, has been hired to play the role of real estate salesman Shelly (the Machine) Levene, in this tale of wheeling and dealing set in Chicago in the early 1980s. This role was played by Jack Lemmon in the star-studded 1992 movie version.
In Glengarry Glen Ross, the stakes are high, the relationships intense and the language full of expletives. “I think Mamet captured a moment in time, right when Reaganomics was taking effect,” Flicker said in a recent interview.
Playwright/actor Daniel Lillford from Nova Scotia, seen recently in Othello at the Segal, will play the mouthy Dave Moss.
The other five members of the all-male cast are experienced, accomplished locals: Brett Watson, as Ricky Roma; Michel Perron, as George Aaronow; Tristan D. Lalla, as detective Baylen; Mike Paterson, as James Lingk; and Graham Cuthbertson, as the office manager.
Flicker didn’t stop after assuring the first two essentials. He has also brought in top-notch set designer Michael Eagan, noted lighting designer Luc Prairie and rising talent Dmitri Marine as sound designer.
Let’s just say Flicker, 41, is not setting himself up to fail. “I like to play with a loaded deck,” he quipped. “Never bet against the house.”
He hasn’t gone high-concept in his direction. “We are doing the play that Mamet wrote,” he said.
This suggests that directing this play is not going to be a one-shot deal. “My finale is my debut.”
But he’s coy about what else he’ll be doing once he leaves the Segal Centre at the end of June. “I’ve had some calls,” he said, adding: “I’d like to do some writing.”
What he wants most, however, is just some time off. Like the Segal Centre’s former artistic director Bryna Wasserman, whom he worked alongside for many years, Flicker is used to putting in long days — and nights. It has taken a toll.
At the end of this season, “I’ll be taking at least until the new year off,” he said. “It will be a six-month break. At least two or three of those months, I plan on going to Asia. I have a friend who moved to Hong Kong.” Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are also on his wish list.
“I really want to go out and see the world,” he said. “The type of job I had here, you’re either 100 per cent in, or you’re out. It’s six to seven days a week, minimum 10 hours a day. There’s a whole administrative job during the day, the audience relations at night, and then there’s the meetings after the shows go down.”
Not that he minded. “It’s a joyous job,” he said. “And you do it because you absolutely love what you’re doing. You have the opportunity to create art and work with all these super artists. It’s inspiring. And at the end of the day, you get to create art. What could be a better life?”
As artistic producer, Flicker has worked on four seasons, the first co-signed with Wasserman and the last (2014-2015, as yet to be fully announced) with Lisa Rubin, the Segal Centre’s managing director, who is about to become artistic and executive director. Jonathan Rondeau, the current director of production, will move up to general manager.
With recent attendance figures running at 90 per cent, Flicker certainly doesn’t feel like he’s deserting the ship in a time of need.
This week he and Rubin unveiled one key element of next season: the première of the English version of Belles Soeurs: The Musical, based on Michel Tremblay’s iconic play Les Belles-Soeurs. It will run from Oct. 19 to Nov. 9.
René Richard Cyr, who directed the French version of the musical, will direct the English one as well. Daniel Bélanger’s music will remain an essential. The script has been translated and adapted by two New York-based Canadians, Neil Bartram and Brian Hill.
The rest of the season will be announced on March 27.
Glengarry Glen Ross, by David Mamet, directed by Paul Flicker, runs March 16 to 30 at the Segal Centre, 5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine Rd. Tickets cost $24 to $49. Call 514-739-7944 or visit segalcentre.org.