Preview
SOLO CELEBRATION
Sage Theatre
November 20 to November 30
Dancers Studio West
Prior to our interview, Sage Theatre founder and artistic director Rob Moffatt had just returned from a time management class. One worries about companies with overrun directors, but Moffatt insists he’s delegating responsibilities for Sage’s upcoming season, its fifth.
And with good reason: fresh on the heels of last season’s Stuck, the company has scored a new home at Dancers’ Studio West, settled into a new office, and is now polishing a long-term business plan to meet future demands. Most importantly, Sage has spruced up its budget and programming, with some ambitious new material this year that, frankly, should have us dancing in the aisles.
They begin with this week’s Solo Celebration, a double-bill of one-man shows beginning with Michael Healey’s kick-ass Kicked.
"We are trying to boost the quality of storyline this season and create some sophistication for the audience," says Moffatt. "There is a kernel of truth and humanity in all of the plays, and they ask the audience to take a bigger leap than usual."
The award-winning Kicked was first performed in Calgary during 2000’s High Performance Rodeo. Moffatt first read it as dramaturge at Alberta Theatre Projects (ATP), just prior to the release of Healey’s other success, The Drawer Boy. Kicked is described as a harrowing play dealing with child abduction, told from the viewpoint of a bus driver, a shoe salesman, a policeman, a doctor and a childlike voice from the afterlife. Its timeliness is, as Moffatt puts it, "ripped from the headlines."
"It’s fiercely intelligent and cathartic, and it has some fundamental truths. It also gives a lot of credence to the power that men can play in these situations, and there is real coming together of the community here".
Moffatt wanted an equally strong companion for Kicked, and the result is the Canadian premiere of John O’Keefe’s Shimmer, a first-person narrative exploring one man’s childhood experiences, including an escape from Midwest residential institution. Despite their differences – for one thing, Kicked is Canadian and Shimmer is American – Moffatt is keen on the common thread they share.
"They both emit a powerful sense of possibility, redemption and liberation. They also ask us, how do we care for our children? What experiences of our children cross a certain threshold, and how do we grow from tragedy?"
The rest of Sage’s season is equally interesting. Childlike illusion becomes reality in the company’s spring offering, Lord of the Flies. First produced by the Shaw Festival, Sage will create the second Canadian production ever of William Golding’s English-student classic (and headache for some), with a cast of about 13 grown men acting as (and like) children. Golding saw the first production just before his death, and although the piece wasn’t intended for North American soil, the play stays faithful to the novel and all its rampant symbolism.
"All the plays question how we live and how society cares for us as wanting citizens — whether or not it’s children as savages, or adults as children," says Moffatt. "Lord of the Flies argues for democracy and parliamentarianism, but our running theme this year is how we triumph over institutionalization and injustice, and create our own civil society, based on our own moral universe and compassion."
Local director Kevin McKendrick (who directed Robert Lepage’s Polygraph for Sage) is at the helm, while Moffatt directs both the Solo Celebration and the season’s final brew, Songs From the Burning Man, a musical road trip to Utopia. Moffatt and singer-songwriter Kris Demeanor are creating the piece from scratch.
"Songs of the Burning Man examines the matrix around us. We’ve already started workshops, and we’re keeping the spirit of experimenting, with a really full and diverse soundscape. I think it will be a bizarre telling of a human story, mixed with some humour and theatricality."
Moffatt adds that Sage is Dancers’ Studio West’s first resident theatre company, and is looking forward to a bright future in the versatile space. Prior to this season, Sage performed in venues like the Big Secret Theatre and the alternative Biograph Theatre at the Bridgeland Community Centre.
But the new venue is only part and parcel of a make-it-or-break-it year for the company, and Moffatt is well aware of what’s ahead: a little parsley, a lot of Sage, a little rosemary, and a lot of time.
"The company is now demanding my sole attention. I’m trying to squeeze the most out of every day. It’s come a long way in terms of its overall business work. We’re collaborating a lot more, and we’re still taking risks – being alternative theatre is still a virtue." |
