Preview
YOU TWO STAY HERE, THE REST COME WITH ME
St. Mary’s University College
Written by Christopher Newton, Allan Rae and Wally Grieve
Directed by Marilyn Potts
Runs April 13 to 15
Bishop Grandin High School
Back in 1969, in the era of Hair and The Beatles, a troupe of young hippie theatre artists, led by a mop-topped Englishman, created a groovy little folk-rock musical about the early history of Calgary. It was wildly successful with local audiences and toured to Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, where even the great Canadian theatre critic Nathan Cohen thought it was pretty good.
That little troupe, all beards and bell-bottoms, was the original Theatre Calgary, their limey leader was Christopher Newton and the show (in keeping with the long, crazy titles then in vogue) was called You Two Stay Here, The Rest Come With Me.
Since then, a grown-up Theatre Calgary has apparently been happy to keep this youthful relic buried in the archives. But there are others who can’t resist digging up the play its creators nicknamed "U2" (long before a certain Irish band came on the scene) and reviving it in all its hippy-dippy glory.
Director-teacher Marilyn Potts is an unabashed fan of the half-forgotten musical and has staged it twice: first, at Bishop Grandin High School in 1980 for Alberta’s 75th anniversary, and now once again for the province’s centennial. Her latest version of "U2," produced for St. Mary’s University College, is an ambitious undertaking involving a team of professional designers and musicians and a cast of 18 student actors.
Potts loves the way that writer-director Newton and his collaborators, composer Allan Rae and co-lyricist Wally Grieve, conceived of the musical as a then-contemporary commentary on Calgary’s past. "The essence of the show is that we can learn from our history," she says.
In the original, a young hippie acted as guide, escorting the audience through Calgary’s first few decades, from its late-19th-century origins as a North West Mounted Police fort up until the First World War, taking in both historical figures such as Louis Riel, CPR builder William Cornelius Van Horne and Father Lacombe, and colourful characters like bellicose boozer Mother Fulham, balloonist Prof. Williams and dashing desperado Ernest Cashel.
In Potts’s new version, the hippie narrator has been replaced with a present-day punk-activist, so that the show is not just a 1960s baby boomer’s view of local history, but a contemporary young person’s view of a baby boomer’s view of local history.
Potts says the alteration was necessary because, even in the Age of Aquarius, "we were really quite racist." First Nations people were still called Indians and the shabby treatment of the Chinese labourers who helped build the national railway scarcely raised an eyebrow. "We’ve become much more aware today," she says. "That’s why we’ve changed the emcee to a young activist, who looks at the mistakes that previous generations have made and knows youth today can do better. But history is history and you can’t change it, you can only comment on it."
"U2" is certainly a creature of its time, including songs with titles like "The Water Gardens of the Moon," "Bang a Heavy Hammer" and the Beatles-sounding "Strawberry Flats" (actually the name of Calgary’s first red-light district). There is even an antiwar ballad about the end of the First World War, which would have had resonance in the Vietnam War era and is no less relevant today.
"The very last song is ‘No More Guns in the Morning,’ about how this was the war to end all wars," says Potts. "And of course, we know that was perfectly not true."
Newton has approved of Potts’s alterations to his old script and spoke with her production team during his recent visit to direct Theatre Calgary’s Macbeth. But the distinguished director, whose mop-top is now silver, winces a little when remembering the obviously derivative nature of his long-ago show.
"It’s a bit dated," he says. "The songs were absolutely of their time. They sound like something The Beatles would’ve rejected."
Still, the show was created in an honest spirit of community. Newton had observed how successful local documentary theatre had been in Britain during the 1960s and felt something similar could work in Calgary. And it did.
"At the time, it was absolutely thrilling. The audience got so excited watching it – I had no idea it would have such an impact," he recalls. The musical, which made its debut in January 1970, packed TC’s old digs, the Allied Arts Centre, to the point where the company sold seats on the stairs to satisfy the demand. "I remember the fire chief bought four stairs for his family," says Newton with a chuckle, "then he came round to see me and said, ‘Now, you mustn’t do this anymore.’"
That spring the show was imported by the NAC, where it got the same enthusiastic reception. "It was one of the ways Theatre Calgary got on the map nationally," says Newton.
His original cast included some promising young people who would go on to noteworthy careers, including award-winning Broadway and film actor Dana Ivey and Shaw Festival luminaries Neil Munro and Michael Ball.
Whether or not there are any future stars in her student cast, Potts has seen to it that her production has a professional sheen. Her musical director is Kristian Alexandrov, known for his collaborations with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks; the ubiquitous Jenifer Darbellay designed the sets and costumes; and Anita Miotti, currently co-starring in One Yellow Rabbit’s In Klezskavania, devised the choreography. The show is being produced with a $10,000 Community Initiatives Grant from the province, which has been matched by the college.
Unfortunately, Newton and Rae won’t be able to attend this revival (Grieve has passed away), but Rae sat in on rehearsals and Newton wishes its young performers the best of luck.
"It’s very nice of them to do it," he says, "and if they can make something of it, great. I’m afraid it won’t quite rise above its period, but with the vitality of kids, you never know." |
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