Preview
THE REPLACEMENT
Lunchbox Theatre
Written by Clem Martini
Starring: Craig Davidson
November 4 to November 23
The opening of a new play by Calgarian Clem Martini is always an event – the internationally known award-winning playwright knows what makes people tick and has a gift for putting that on stage. His plays are funny, touching and filled with articulate and witty characters as familiar as the person sitting next to you.
His newest play, The Replacement, is set in an average home in suburban Calgary, where Norman is anxiously preparing to throw a dinner party. It’s a big deal for him – after years of being dominated by his wife, it’s his first real chance to show some independence. But an unexpected guest named Betty shatters his plans, leaving Norman flustered and his wife Candace barely able to contain her annoyance. It’s a Martini trademark to take normal, everyday situations and, with a simple twist, send us into new territory. In The Replacement the comedy builds off an awkward social situation and an unexpected touch of the supernatural.
The play is the latest in a string of more than a dozen that Martini has had produced at Lunchbox Theatre since 1988. Although he’s also been produced at Alberta Theatre Projects, Quest Theatre and Workshop West, his long relationship with Lunchbox is a particular source of pride.
"When it comes to one-act plays, Lunchbox is the king of the hill," Martini says. "There is no one that generates so many new one-act plays as Lunchbox, and produces them. They’re the best at what they do."
Looking back over his body of work, Martini admits there are certain themes that are repeatedly reflected in his work.
"There is a mixture of comedy and tragedy," he says. "That’s true of this latest play – it’s both comic and, in a number of places, sad. I guess I see life as a synthesis of those things. I don’t see things uniformly comic or uniformly tragic. You move from one day to the next, from one genre to the other.
"You move very quickly from one thing being very funny to being very tragic, and I don’t know how you stop that. That’s how I perceive things so that’s how things wind up on the page for me."
Several Martini plays are about people being trapped– in a cage, at the zoo or in a coal mine. It’s a situation that serves a useful purpose by forcing characters to confront each other and their problems.
"Certainly The Replacement has something of that – people trapped or perceiving themselves as trapped and trying to find a way out. I think, ultimately, they do. Maybe that’s a thing that makes it a Martini play, people trying to dig their way out of their lives."
No matter how dark the situation or setting, however, his plays tend towards hopeful, positive resolutions.
"I don’t know how you can live if you honestly believe there is no hope," Martini says. "I guess I’m not interested in telling hopeless stories. I tend not to be a cynic. I tend to resist that. In the end we have to play the cards we’re dealt and move on."
Martini is one of the busiest writers in Calgary and always has several projects on the go. In the ’70s, he helped to found the Loose Moose Theatre, which began a lifelong involvement in improvisation and comedy. As an assistant professor at the University of Calgary, he is best known for his playwriting classes (for two years in a row Martini’s students have won the Discovery Category in the Alberta Playwriting Competition).
The roles of writer, teacher and improviser combine in Martini’s work at Calgary’s Woods Homes. Every year, he spends part of his summer with a small group of troubled teens. In a few short weeks he has them create, rehearse and perform their own play.
"I think probably working with those young people has affected my world view," Martini says. "When you talk about people being giving a tough hand, many of them have been dealt a really hard lot. But it’s a rare young person who gives up. They act out and they struggle, but they’re trying to get whatever juice they can out of life. Many of them turn the corner and find their way and make good."
He is currently working on a play about his experience working at Woods Homes, and he’s been commissioned by Citadel Theatre in Edmonton to write a play based on the Drumheller Penitentiary riots last year.
"There’s a certain resonance back and forth there between some of the kids’ stories and some of the stories from prisoners," he adds. "There are so many stories to tell. I feel like I’m just starting to scratch the surface. There are all kinds of stories. There are lots of thing I want to write and there doesn’t ever seem to be enough minutes in the day. I’m always looking ahead and thinking of the next thing." |
