Preview
HIGH PERFORMANCE RADIO: ANDREW ALLAN’S CHAIR
One Yellow Rabbit
Starring Allan Boss, Denise Clarke, Andy Curtis, Onalea Gilbertson and Brad Payne
Written and directed by Blake Brooker
Runs January 7 to 10
Big Secret Theatre (Epcor Centre)
"Radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools," asserted Elvis Costello in the 1970s. But in the 1940s and ’50s, CBC Radio drama was in the hands of an imperious, well-tailored Presbyterian Scotsman named Andrew Allan, who was nobody’s fool.
Clad in a double-breasted suit, a handkerchief tucked primly in his sleeve, Mr. Allan – as he insisted on being called – conducted live radio dramas like the maestro of a symphony orchestra. Only he wielded a stopwatch instead of a baton.
"He was very stiff and regimented," says Allan Boss, the current arts and entertainment producer for CBC Radio in Alberta. "But everybody was in those days. It was a very polite, pristine time."
And yet the work Allan produced as national head of radio drama wasn’t straitlaced by any means. He was a guiding light in the Golden Age of Canadian radio, overseeing the work of some of the finest talents of the day – writers and actors such as Lister Sinclair, Mavor Moore, W.O. Mitchell, Jane Mallett and John Drainie, who confronted the stuffy postwar era with a satirical wit and insight that often had conservatives in a rage.
"These were concerned, intelligent people talking about topical, political issues with precision and passion," says Boss.
In fact, radio dramatists today may have something to learn from them – which is the premise behind One Yellow Rabbit’s new show, High Performance Radio: Andrew Allan’s Chair.
In the radio-cum-stage play – premièring at the High Performance Rodeo in a co-production by the Rabbits and CBC Radio – a studio full of contemporary radio people try to produce a topical play and end up getting a little spiritual guidance, so to speak, from the ghost of the autocratic Mr. Allan.
"He sees they’re not doing it very well – there are problems in the cast, arguments," says Boss. So Allan steps in to offer his firm (and doubtless well-manicured) hand.
The show’s title refers literally to Allan’s chair, which Boss says has become an icon at CBC Radio’s Toronto headquarters, where it is handed down from one head of drama to the next.
"It sits right outside the drama recording studio, on a pedestal," he says. "It’s an old wooden armchair that’s cracked and broken, made of brown leather with the stuffing coming out of it. It’s a beautiful beast."
While Andrew Allan’s Chair, the stage play, will be performed at the Big Secret Theatre, it is also being recorded live for broadcast. Andrew Allan’s Chair, the radio play, will subsequently be heard on CBC Radio 1’s Sunday Showcase on February 1 at 10 p.m. and CBC Radio 2’s Monday Night Playhouse on February 2 at 9 p.m.
The idea for the co-production came from Boss, who approached OYR and suggested CBC Radio commission a work from the company. An actor and playwright as well as a radio producer, he’s also co-starring in the show along with Denise Clarke, Onalea Gilbertson, Brad Payne and Andy Curtis (who plays Allan).
Boss is a newcomer to CBC Radio, having taken over the local drama producer’s job only 19 months ago. But he’s very familiar with the era in Canadian culture that Allan belongs to. The 37-year-old Edmonton native is currently finishing a PhD in theatre history at the University of Calgary that focuses on the life and work of theatre and broadcasting pioneer Mavor Moore. In fact, he consulted with Moore, now 84 and in retirement in Victoria, during his research for this play.
Boss says the show is partly an attempt to acknowledge Canada’s rich artistic heritage.
"A lot of it talks about Canadian culture and how we, as Canadians, need to embrace this culture and remember from where we have come," he notes. "It’s a fairly common myth that Canada is a new country, but Montreal had opera houses and playhouses when New York was a hick town. The oldest known drama on North American soil was performed just the other side of Halifax in the Annapolis valley in 1606. Yet we think we have no theatrical history."
And speaking of history, whatever happened to Allan? After serving as radio drama head from 1943 until 1955, he tried to make the transition to television, but didn’t like it, and later became the first artistic director of the Shaw Festival (1963 - 1965). "He had a bout with alcoholism that went on for most of his life, to the point where he was sleeping in hotel lobbies," says Boss. Finally, he sobered up, went back to radio to write essays for the likes of Bruno Gerussi and Peter Gzowski, and died in 1974.
So Allan is gone, but CBC Radio drama lives on. "It was and still is, arguably, Canada’s only national theatre," says Boss. "It’s the only theatre that anybody can listen to anywhere in Canada." |
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