FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1999. All Rights Reserved
| Theatre by Lori Montgomery Beautiful Lake Winnipeg As I waited outside the Pleiades Theatre to interview artistic director John-Paul Fischbach, three young people burst through the doors to begin an obviously eagerly anticipated round of hackeysack in the lobby. They giggled like boisterous kids, occasionally sending – by accident – the projectile sailing into a throng of children eating lunch in The Science Centre, where the theatre is housed. They chatted about the way-cool exhibits – the "jump like a cat" demo won rave reviews – and reminded each other to eat during their lunch break. An intriguing juxtaposition, since these three actors were on a break from rehearsing one of the most disturbingly adult plays in the repertoire of Canadian theatre, receiving perhaps its most disturbing spin as it slides across the Pleiades stage. On the page, Maureen Hunter’s play tells the story of Ian, a young man who arrives at a secluded cabin with his fiancée, only to find himself trapped there with her ex-husband, Mitch, and the disturbing sense that he’s been set up. When it jumps off the page under Fischbach’s direction, it takes on a kinky edge. "If what we’re dealing with is an S&M practitioner relationship, then we’ve built a backstory that makes sense of who all of these characters are," Fischbach suggests. "It explains everything." Everything including one of the central enigmas of the play: who is Salome, the older woman who seems to exert an odd hold over the characters? "The point of departure for us is that Salome does actually seduce young boys, and runs S&M scenarios with them," he explains. One of those young boys is Mitch, whom she has groomed to assist her in her search for fresh meat. "It’s getting harder and harder for them to get high and have great sex, because the scenario’s kind of getting old, and Salome’s kind of getting old," the director adds. Of course, that’s just the background, before the action of the play even begins. "You always look as a director for what’s different tonight: when the curtain goes up, why is this particular instance the highest stakes you can possibly have?" he asks. "Salome’s willing to ruin the whole thing tonight. She’s willing to scrap the whole thing, because she just wants the young guy.... Tonight is maybe the last time the game is played." You might point out it sounds like a departure of sorts for the mystery theatre, local home to Agatha Christie fans – and Fischbach would agree with you. In fact, he gave regular subscribers a chance to opt out of this one, after giving them a blunt description of what they would be letting themselves in for. "What’s really important to me is that everybody who comes to the play has a good time," he says firmly. "I’m not in the business to shock and offend people. I care about getting an audience and taking them on an amazing ride... and I don’t want people strapping into the car who don’t want to go on that ride. I think people will be titillated and intrigued – those are the things I want. I don’t want them to be grossed out." Nonetheless, he concedes that even in its tamest form, the play takes an uncomfortable view of human relationships, and says that the subscribers who decided to stick with Beautiful Lake Winnipeg – all 86 per cent of them – won’t get off scot-free. The artists have yet to discover how far this interpretation demands that they go, but there is a basic, scripted explicitness that might disturb some. "I think that the audience will be a bit uncomfortable with the amount of... blatantly honest physical interaction," he says circumspectly. "But the thing that’s incredible about this play is that at the same time as that’s going on, something intellectually is really weird.... The audience is always engaged mentally at the same time as viscerally." |
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