>>PREVIEW
I’LL BE BACK BEFORE MIDNIGHT
Vertigo Mystery Theatre
Starring Karen Johnson Diamond and Ryan Luhning
Written by Peter Colley
Directed by Johanne Deleeuw
Runs February 4 to 26
Vertigo Playhouse (Tower Centre)
Today, nightmare scenarios are primarily the province of film, with computer-generated gore and villains tromping the hallways of the movie theatres everywhere. But as Canada’s only live theatre dedicated exclusively to mysteries, Vertigo Mystery Theatre aims to stake a place for terror on Calgary’s stage as well.
"I think (frightening an audience) is a harder thing to do onstage, and I think there aren’t many plays that deal with it in the way that film does," admits Johanne Deleeuw, Lunchbox Theatre’s former artistic director and the current director of Vertigo’s latest production, I’ll Be Back Before Midnight. "It’s about building up suspense, creating the tension. Music is a big part of that."
Scored by first-time composer Christian Goutsis, better known to Calgary audiences in his roles as an actor, I’ll Be Back Before Midnight follows Jan Sanderson (Karen Johnson Diamond) and her growing paranoia as she and her husband Greg (Ryan Luhning) retire to a remote farmhouse following her previous nervous breakdown. Emerging from stories of murder in the house, told by local farmer George (Robert Klein), Jan’s fevered visions of haunting spirits form the basis for the play’s conceit, as she grapples with the possibility of either her own madness or a malicious attempt on her sanity.
Written by Canadian playwright Peter Colley, the play has been a national favourite since its première in 1979. And while Deleeuw concedes that it’s "not the most profound play in the world," its continued popularity speaks volumes about its ability to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. As the stage manager for an abridged version at Lunchbox Theatre in the late 1980s, she can still recall a screaming teenage audience member who had to leave the theatre during a performance.
"I think what’s different (from film) is the immediacy," says Deleeuw. "(Immediacy) creates a lot of adrenalin, which is fun, and there’s a great release in it. I love to be scared for the same reason I love a great laugh – you get the same adrenalin rush, the same feeling whether it’s a good belly laugh or whether it’s a good fight. If you can get a whole lot of people in the audience to scream, and scare them, there is a huge adrenalin rush that affects that room."
Deleeuw herself experienced a far less pleasant shock this past summer with her abrupt dismissal from Lunchbox Theatre, making her the second artistic director to be sacked in 2005. Unlike her colleague Ian Prinsloo at Theatre Calgary, who was given plenty of advance warning that his contract wouldn’t be renewed, Deleeuw didn’t get her notice until long after most theatre companies hire the cast and crews for their coming seasons’ productions, leaving her with few options for 2005-06. I’ll Be Back Before Midnight was a notable exception, having been planned in advance between Deleeuw and Vertigo’s artistic director, Mark Bellamy.
In spite of the sudden and unexpected nature of Deleeuw’s dismissal, she’s gracious, even understanding, admitting her personal disappointment while at the same time wishing her replacement, Rona Waddington, the best as Lunchbox’s new artistic director. Now a freelance director, Deleeuw is looking forward to next season and the opportunity to continue to work in Calgary’s theatre scene.
However, she remains staunch in her belief that the increasingly corporate attitude of boards of directors, which many see as having prompted both dismissals, is a detriment to the process of theatre.
"That’s hard to say," she says when asked whether we can expect a more corporate approach to Calgary theatre in the future. "I sure hope not. I know the impetus and the way (the dismissal) was done was a very heavy corporate mindset, but it’s certainly not the way arts organizations have been in the past."
Deleeuw was asked to come to the theatre under the pretense of a fundraising meeting before being, in the words of her husband in a letter sent to Fast Forward, "told to clean out her office (with the human resources person… hovering over her shoulder) and hand in her keys."
"Not just from my experience, but from talking to people in the corporate world, it’s a very dehumanizing thing," says Deleeuw of the way she was treated. "I don’t think in any corporation it’s the way people should be treated. There may have been very good, legitimate reasons that it was time for us to part company, but I don’t think it has to be done that way.
"Knowing how to run a business is very important," she adds, "but one of the great things that arts organizations have going for them is their humanity, and it’s hard to create art if you don’t care about that kind of thing."
Of the rationale given by Lunchbox Theatre’s board for her dismissal, namely that the company needed to be taken in a new direction, Deleeuw remains understandably curious. Deleeuw planned Lunchbox’s current season prior to leaving, and Waddington’s own lineup of plays for 2006-07 has yet to be announced.
"I’m kind of waiting to see what’s happening there, because I haven’t heard what kind of plans they would have, (or) direction that’s been different than mine," says Deleeuw. "That’s been my curiosity, never having been given reasons for my dismissal – I want to see what it is they want to do differently." |
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