FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
| THEATRE Death in New Orleans The preoccupation with identity is as Canadian as the hoser, the toque and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Literary luminaries like Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje have tackled the question, and so, it could be argued, have pioneers like Susanna Moodie. Witness her book, Roughing it in the Bush. To that list add playwright John Murrell, whose new play Death in New Orleans is being mounted in Calgary by One Yellow Rabbit after a run at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. In August, the company made their sixth trip to the annual fringe festival, netting positive reviews across the board and a coveted Fringe First Award to boot. The play follows a group of Canadians to New Orleans after one of them inherits an archeological dig and an old house in the French Quarter. In the ensuing confusion, the members of the group each begin to search for something authentic and attainable in the culture around them. One explores voodoo culture. Another turns to music. And yet another takes an American lover. But what they ultimately discover is the inescapability of their Canadian roots. According to actor Michael Green, Death in New Orleans raises all kinds of questions about identity that come up again and again when the company performs internationally - questions that came up for them only a few weeks ago in Scotland. "An aspect of Canadian identity is that we tend to see ourselves more clearly when we're outside of our own home. Conversation is often, 'Well, Canadians are like this' or 'Canadians wouldn't do that.' We tend to compare ourselves as Canadians to the other people around. That's one of the things the play touches on." According to Green, all of Murrell's characters are outsiders to a certain extent - even the Americans. They're outsiders by virtue of race, religion or cultural expectation. What sets them apart from one another is prejudice, sense of humor and even weather. And yet the group forms a family of sorts that accommodates the differences as best it can. "I don't know if that's a universal thing, but it's certainly a very Canadian thing. I saw it reflected again quite vividly when we went down this year. After going across to Edinburgh for six years in a row, we actually do have a kind of family. And I saw us do it. I saw us draw our family members close to us the way the characters in this play do. And I was struck by John Murrell's ability to see that." The One Yellow Rabbit family included Scots, other Canadians, and English people who made the trek north to visit them. "While we're there, we become a tribe," says Green, "an international tribe." And yet some differences are just not bridgeable. The British class system continues to seem alien to the Rabbits, as do other aspects of British culture and values. But the important thing, says Green, is the attempt to bridge the gap and the will to get along anyway. "There's a line in the play that refers to an interesting aspect of the Canadian psyche. Canadians experience a vast chasm between where they are and their heart's desire, and even though it might seem impossible to traverse that gulf, Canadians will go ahead and try anyway. It's a yearning, a heart's journey. That's what these characters are on, each and every one of them." Take Green's character, Koontz. "He wants to discover the source. He wants to find his music. He's envious of the soul of the music that comes from New Orleans and earnestly wishes to be a part of that. He doesn't seem to understand that it's unlikely that he's going to be accepted. And yet the search in itself is interesting." |