September 24, 2014
The Montreal GazetteSeptember 19, 2014
By Pat Donnelly
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MONTREAL —It may come as a surprise to those who spend most of their time staring at glowing screens to learn that Montreal has a dynamic theatre scene offering a range of choices — from feisty, independently produced works to fully professional ones at established theatres to commercial touring shows at Place des Arts.
Take your pick: a backstage play about a dominatrix, a new musical based on a play by Michel Tremblay, or a trilogy inspired by an Iranian immigrant’s identity crisis. All of the above will be performed live, in Montreal, before the new year.
Montreal may not be a theatre destination on a par with London or New York. But we do offer a substantial amount of quality professional theatre in both of our nation’s official languages.
While the vast majority of the productions here are in French, many are in English. Others — like L’Homme invisible/The Invisible Man, by Patrice Desbiens, opening next month at La Licorne — are bilingual. A few offer surtitles, in English or in French, or include passages delivered in a third or fourth language. (Our world-renowned Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre company performs in Yiddish, with bilingual surtitles.) Others strive to convey meaning beyond the barriers of language using elements of circus, dance, music and puppetry.
International influences and intercultural initiatives add an enriching diversity to the unique, potentially addictive Montreal mix.
Black Theatre Workshop’s upcoming Gas Girls, by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, about the sex trade in Africa, and Teesri Duniya’s Corpus, a Holocaust-themed play by Darrah Teitel, both offer theatre with a world view and a social conscience. Actor/playwright Mani Soleymanlou, who completed the third play of a trilogy exploring his Iranian, Canadian and Québécois identity in time for last spring’s Festival TransAmériques, is about to present three plays — titled Un, Deux and Trois — together at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui next week. The most widely anticipated première this season is that of Belles Soeurs: The Musical, produced by A Copa de Oro and presented by the Segal Centre. This English-language musical adaptation of Michel Tremblay’s seminal 1968 play Les Belles Soeurs was preceded by the French musical version which premièred at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui in 2011 and toured to Paris in 2012.
Many musicals of varying sizes are on the horizon: Spring Awakening: The Musical; Book of Mormon; Hamlet, by the Tiger Lillies, imported from the U.K.; and the Leonard Cohen-inspired Dance Me to the End On/Off Love, returning to the Centaur Theatre from Denmark.
In addition to Belles Soeurs, the Segal Centre will be launching another new Canadian musical, Duddy Kravitz: The Musical, in the spring. A production of the mini-musical Forever Plaid, scheduled for February, will bring the Segal musical count to three within their seven-play season.
This isn’t likely to happen again soon. “Musicals cost a fortune to do,” said Lisa Rubin, artistic and executive director of the Segal Centre. “We seized the day and we’re dreaming big.”
Cinematic kinship is in, too, this year. There are already three plays on the boards linked to noted films (The Graduate, Opening Night, Bard Fiction).
Another trend: French plays with English titles. Those include the aforementioned Opening Night at Théâtre de Quat’Sous, Oh Lord at La Licorne, and the revival of Being at Home With Claude, by René Daniel Dubois at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde.
Centaur Theatre is kicking off its six-play “Shocking and Delightful” subscription season with the sizzling Venus in Fur, by David Ives, which created a sensation in French at Théâtre Duceppe last fall as La Vénus au vison. In this brilliantly written two-hander, a theatre director falls under the thrall of a seductive, domineering woman. We’re getting the acclaimed Toronto production, directed by Jennifer Tarver, starring former Montrealer Rick Miller and Carly Street.
“This year we sort of exchanged socialism for sex,” joked Centaur artistic and executive director Roy Surette while discussing his season. (Sorry, no David Fennario play this time around.)
Prior to Venus in Fur, a remount of Persephone Productions’ Spring Awakening: The Musical, about hormone-driven teenagers, will serve as a kind of pre-season warm-up act, as this year’s selection for Centaur’s Brave New Looks.
Chuck Childs, general manager of Centaur, said Surette’s process of putting together a season is far more complex than slotting a dynamite kickoff play. And so is balancing the books. However, last year’s opener, Steve Galluccio’s comedy The St. Leonard Chronicles, became the season’s top box office hit. (With season ticket sales hitting 62,000, the company was able to reduce its accumulated deficit by half.)
This year, the same Galluccio play, translated as Les Chroniques de Saint-Léonard, will play, in French, at Théâtre Duceppe in December.
Surette notes ruefully that this year’s Italian play, Vittorio Rossi’s The Envelope, isn’t due to open at Centaur until March. (Like Galluccio, Rossi has a loyal community fan base.) Centaur’s second fall play, Social Studies, by Manitoba playwright Tricia Cooper, might be a tougher sell although it’s directed by the marvellously inventive Paul Van Dyck.
Meanwhile, Amy Blackmore, artistic producer of MainLine Theatre, reports a hyperactive season ahead at her St. Laurent Blvd. walk-up space. “I thought we’d build a season built around the Fringe,” she said. “But what’s happening is this new wave of small, independent theatre companies that are starting to really take their place.”
Théâtre Ste. Catherine, which has its own in-house, working-class sit-com, DéPFLIES, about to enter its eighth episode, is another hot spot.
Danielle Caddell, director of a highly active independent company, Beyond the Mountain Productions, when interviewed on CBC Radio, talked about producing “gateway” theatre aimed at winning over people who say they hate theatre. Just as there are “gateway” drugs on the path to heroin, she reasoned, perhaps her brand of pop theatre can get people hooked on the more potent stuff. (Say, Greek tragic myth as interpreted by Racine, like Andromaque 10-43 at Théâtre Denise Pelletier; or edgy new works like Talya Rubin’s Of the Causes of Wonderful Things or Talisman Theatre’s Billy (The Days of Howling), both booked into Théâtre la Chapelle.)
To that end, Caddell is presenting Bard Fiction, a Shakespearean take on Pulp Fiction, at MainLine Theatre this week and a Toronto-created puppet show, We Walk Among You, in November.
Rubin expanded on Caddell’s analogy, saying big shows like The Lion King and Book of Mormon and Jersey Boys, all presented by Broadway Across Canada and Evenko at Place des Arts, could serve as gateway enticements to the musicals she is presenting at the Segal this year. “If someone is going to see Jersey Boys, they’ll probably want to see Forever Plaid,” she said, adding, “I think The Graduate is a gateway drug for French audiences — and for male audiences.” (Could it be the nude scene?)
The Graduate, now extended by two performances, is also serving as a gateway to the entire season, Rubin said, as many people are using their tickets for a credit toward purchasing a subscription. Already, Segal subscription sales are up 35 per cent from last year, when the average attendance rate was 81 per cent.
Rubin’s strategy for the future includes co-production and touring. “I don’t want to spend so much money on a play for it to end up in the Dumpster,” she said.
Increasingly, anglophone companies, following the example of their francophone counterparts, are taking their shows on the road. In the case of Infinitheatre, which scored a hit with its 2013 hit Kafka’s Ape in Toronto this summer, it’s partly a matter of necessity. Their home space, Le Bain St. Michel, is under renovation. This fall, Kafka’s Ape, starring Howard Rosenstein, will tour to Stratford, Ont., as well as Wakefield, Dorval and St-Lambert.
Infinitheatre artistic director Guy Sprung says Kafka’s Ape acts as a “gateway” production because of its venues. “We put it on in funny places like ballrooms and Masonic halls,” he said. “We get people who don’t normally go to the theatre.”
Like Blackmore, Sprung talks of a thriving scene. “It was Louis Dudek who once said, ‘Every now and then Montreal has to show the rest of Canada what poetry really is.’ I think the same thing is about to happen with theatre.”
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FIVE SHOWS TO TRY
If you’re ready to savour the variety of Montreal’s fall theatre season, here are five suggestions for starters. Previously reviewed and highly recommended shows such as The Graduate and Opening Night are not listed here.
1. Belles Soeurs: The Musical. Whether or not the English-language Belles Soeurs: The Musical, based on Michel Tremblay’s iconic play Les Belles Soeurs — about a woman who wins a fortune in trading stamps — lives up to expectations or not, it’s guaranteed to be the talk of the town on both sides of our linguistic divide.
Auteur director René Richard Cyr, who helmed the French version, is back, as is most of Daniel Bélanger’s music. But the English adaptation is a rewrite, by Brian Hill (book) and Neil Bartram (lyrics, music). Both are well-acquainted with Broadway-style musicals. The cast includes top talent like former Montrealers Marcia Tratt (as Rhéauna Bibeau) and Stephanie McNamara (as Rose Ouimet), and Dora Award winner Astrid Van Wieren as Germaine Lauzon.
If the show is good, it will have a long life both here and abroad as producer Alan Sandler of A Copa de Oro productions holds the world English-language rights. Since 60 per cent of the tickets for the Segal Centre run are already sold, it appears that the public is highly interested in this bicultural experiment. So are Toronto producers. Best to see it here first.
Belles Soeurs: The Musical runs Oct. 19 to Nov. 9 at the Segal Centre. Tickets: $32 (student) to $64. Call 514-739-7944 or visit segalcentre.org.