I want for theatre.

The below is the first of two meditations on theatre, one year on from in-person theatre virtually stopping around the globe. Many people pine to bring things “back to how they were”. I think we can do better.

I want for theatre.
I want it to spark, to make me think and reflect.
I want it to engage with the current world, but indirectly. 

             to reflect and adapt to our own engagement with physical spaces and landscapes. 

I want to play.
I want plays that play.
I want live experiences that sing from the rooftop about our collective human experience. 

I want collaborative environments and non-hierarchical structures. Environments where creators and audiences are on equal footing, where people can work or watch and feel comfortable, feel they belong.
Environments that let contributors ask for what they need without fear.
Environments that give contributors what they need, rather than acquiescing to time.

I want processes that allow for participants to have lives. To have other jobs if they want, to have more than one career. To have a family when they want to. 

I want theatre that recognizes that only working in the theatre is not a privilege available to everyone. That working class kids can dream of being a part of. That respects and welcomes everyone into the creative process, not just those who fit a certain criteria or have a specific set of experiences. 

I want theatre for people who think theatre isn’t for them. I want theatre for kids who like me, grew up in a poor neighbourhood. Kids who know what it is like to come home from school and have the hydro or water shut off due to an unpaid bill. Who didn’t know anyone who was an artist. Who didn’t have a financial support lineage to pay for school or rent or support while they interned or did apprenticeships before the “real” money came. Kids who had to turn down “great opportunities” to make sure they could eat.

I want theatre that focuses on experiences; those beyond our own, those that create empathy in the creators and viewers and a desire to learn more and take action.

           Theatre that encourages performers to take risks, to try something they have not done before or that scares them, from a safe environment.
To risk.
To be risky; because the very act of performing is risky, and the idea that suggesting one group’s stories may be more risky than another’s is divisive and dangerous.

I want theatre for the community. Theatre that reflects and challenges our view of the world. Tears down our assumptions, and most importantly, our expectations. 

I want for theatre. 

Justin Otto in Tim Crouch’s I, Malvolio for impel Theatre, 2019. Photo by Kendra Jones.

I, Malvolio by Tim Crouch (Brighton Festival 2015 - via Vimeo)

In furtherance of his status as one of the nicest humans you’ll meet, the amazing Tim Crouch has made the video archive of his performance of I, Malvolio at Brighton Festival in 2015 available without a password. You can watch it here.

Unlike most of my blogs which focus on documenting what happened, what I thought about it, etc, this will be a little different. I’ve just closed a second run of my own production of Tim’s brilliant play a few weeks ago, and have been immersed intellectually in this script for over a year. Despite that, I’ve never actually seen Tim perform the show. I’ve read about it, talked to him about it, heard him lecture on it, read reviews of it, you name it. I’ve read it countless times, torn it apart, interpreted, discussed, scenario-ized, and ultimately put it on its feet in two different venues and cities.

Watching Tim’s performance of the play was a bit surreal. First and foremost (and i knew this from seeing him perform other of his work), his performance is simultaneously highly theatrical, and completely anti-performative. He speaks and moves with complete simplicity, allowing the nature of the audience-performer relationship, the absurdity of watching people do things, lead the comedy. More importantly, though, it was fascinating to me to hear the moments of inflection, the break up of thoughts and moments in his performance versus ours. The simultaneous similarity and difference of the two was uncanny. I’ve never before experienced something like that - where two groups had clearly done the work in isolation and then come up with such similar and yet wholly different understandings of the text. This is truly a testament to Tim’s writing, the clarity with which he puts the thoughts on the page for us to pick up. Even moments of improvisation (which there are MANY) resulted in similar interactions, at times almost verbatim to things Justin said in the moment in response to an audience member’s reaction.

It is as if the character of Malvolio is so clearly described through the words, rhythm, and actions of the play, that if you do your work, there is no other choice for how to understand the intentions of the moment.

I strongly recommend watching this while it is available, especially for those who saw my production in either Toronto or Winnipeg. This production was performed for teens on a school trip.

And I emerge, once again (and perhaps even more than ever before) grateful to Tim for letting Justin and I play with his words.

I, Malvolio @ Toronto Fringe

“It’s all too easy isn’t it. . . To destroy the thing you’re too lazy to understand. To take joy in someone else’s downfall.”

We all do it. Schadenfreüde. We laugh at someone’s misfortune. We express our dominance over others, through joy at their misfortune. We know we shouldn’t.

But do we?

This play has captivated my imagination since I first heard Tim speak about it whilst studying in London. When we re-interrogate an existing play from the perspective of a single character, a character who is beat up on for our enjoyment…and turn that interrogation on the audience, what happens? What further happens when you aren’t just doing this with an adult audience, but to teens?

I have wanted to direct this project for awhile. But this spring, in the context of the cuts to education, reverting the Healthy Living curriculum to something that was relevant when I was still in high school. . . I decided now was the time. We are doing an extreme disservice to our young people by not teaching them about bullying, about different sexual orientations, by not teaching them consent. Not to mention avoiding the subject of how much easier and simultaneously more difficult puberty must be when everything you do lives online, and can be there for the rest of your life. One indiscretion, one step across a line, one mistake, and your future can be lost. Or it can be explained away by wealthy or powerful parents. A world, today, where even the most put-together person, may have been bullied. We all wear the scars of these memories, these aggressions, on our skin.

So; we present I, Malvolio. A play which interrogates our relationships to one another, how we the audience are positioned as middle schoolers, encouraged to interact, to question what they’re watching, to be on their phones. . . literally. The play itself, the production, and hopefully your experience, are chaos. Pure chaos, through which we examine relationships, performance, audience, and failure.

The play is performed by the brilliant Justin Otto, who, through his work on this play will help you question the act of watching, the act of laughing….and ultimately the act of judgment on another’s actions.

Come join us at Artscape Youngplace, Fringe venue #24, for a site-specific and interactive production of Tim Crouch’s I, Malvolio, making its Toronto debut. And, if you’d like, add us on snapchat (impel-theatre) to see Justin perform.

Want to know a little more? Check out our interview with Donna G on The More The Merrier for CIUT Radio.

Tickets are available now! 7:30pm nightly from July 3-13 (no Sunday shows).

New Ideas Festival @ Alumnae Theatre

The New Ideas Festival at Alumnae Theatre is in full swing! Two more chances to catch the Week 1 shows, then be sure to get your tickets for Week 2 which includes the show I've been working on, Sweet Mama and the Salty Muffins!

Sweet Mama and the Salty Muffins
by Ciarán Myers

Directed by Kendra Jones
Featuring Lisa Lenihan
Stage Manager Emma Miziolek

with original music by Sierra Noble

Get your tickets here! The $15 ticket for each week gets you all 4 shows for that week. And don't forget the reading on Saturday afternoon! 

4.48 psychosis by Sarah Kane - Trailer

Beautiful trailer filmed and edited by Alana McNeill, with audio by John Norman. Featuring Elizabeth Whitbread. 

Catch us at Toronto Fringe July 5-15 and Winnipeg Fringe July 19-30.