Preview
METAMORPHOSIS
Theatre Mystic
Directed by Laurier Dubeau
Starring Laurier Dubeau, Trevor Grover, Candice Albach and Kelly Dawson
January 22 to February 1
Pumphouse Theatres
A film of Franz Kafka’s literary classic Metamorphosis would probably call for animatronics or computer graphics in the opening scene where poor old Gregor Samsa is transformed into a king-sized bug. Onstage, however, you have to find another way of doing it – a challenge director and actor Laurier Dubeau of Theatre Mystic unblinkingly accepted.
"It’s a huge challenge," says Dubeau, a graduate of the Vancouver Playhouse. "But I wanted it to be fantastical because that’s the world I love to live in and act in. Something otherworldly."
Dubeau will be playing Kafka’s famous bug without resorting to latex prosthetics or an over-size bug costume. Working closely with the other four actors in the cast, he developed rigorous movement and speech patterns to convey the transformation. In order to be faithful to the text, the script uses as much of Kafka’s dialogue as possible, but creates a convention that has the actors providing narration and commentary like a Greek chorus.
The production has an expressionist look to it with larger-than-life props, off-balance furniture, garish makeup and gaudy costumes. The set of Samsa’s room is constructed of a latticework of beams that allows Dubeau to literally climb the walls, but also has a bug-like menace to it, reinforcing the central focus of the show.
Metamorphosis is a very ambitious choice for Theatre Mystic’s first production, but one that Dubeau feels will introduce audiences to the kind of imaginative work they can expect from this company.
"I want to create something new, something that will really make you think, to create new environments, ideas, conventions, and new ways of acting," says Dubeau.
Theatre Mystic has gone all out to present Metamorphosis in a way that will satisfy Kafka fans and will make the story accessible to those new to his work.
"I just want to tell the story and have everyone understand it, appreciate it and walk out of the theatre with a different view on life, themselves and especially theatre." |
