>>PREVIEW
PPPEEEAAACCCEEE
Downstage Performance Society
Runs until May 20
Big Secret Theatre (Epcor Centre)
What is the best way to effect positive change in the world? Should we scrap the existing system and attempt to start again, hoping the mistakes of the past do not follow us – or do we take the good that society offers now and build upon that through small changes within ourselves? These are just a few of the questions asked by Downstage’s last theatrical presentation of the season, Pppeeeaaaccceee.
"I think many people feel like a lot of the injustices in the world are beyond the scope of the individual person," says director Simon Mallett. "A prevailing attitude of, ‘Well, I can’t do anything about that.’ This show questions that notion and says, ‘If you undertake change within yourself, you’re actually contributing to a much more important social change.’"
Pppeeeaaaccceee, written by Darren O’Donnell, is set in a fictitious world after a revolution, and attempts to tackle the weighty issue of how we build peace as a society. In an effort to avoid bulldozing the audience with sermons of damnation, the ideas suggested in the play are presented in an abstract way, using humour and discussion, engaging the audience on both an emotional and mental level.
"It’s about spurring thought and beginning the process of imagination in the minds of the audience," says Mallett. "Hopefully they talk to each other about the show and the ideas presented in it, because it’s not the easiest show to access. It forces the audience to think and respond emotionally to it."
Mallet says Pppeeeaaaccceee was intentionally chosen to end the season, juxtaposing the company’s first two more military-orientated productions.
"Part of the show is this idea of the performers saying the word ‘peace’ and what happens to them when they say it," says Mallett. "They play around with the word. It’s about creating interaction between people – forcing them to actually have individual encounters in their lives, rather than going around in their bubbles. So the tagline is, ‘Peace – say it slow, stretch it out and make it last forever’."
Featuring a cast of six, Mallett says the play is like an all-night conversation between good friends. The actors use their awareness of the audience to share their "experiences" of the world before and after the revolution.
"Hopefully it will open up the audience to the diversity that is possible in the kind of work that we do. It doesn’t have to be actors on a stage taking on characters. The performers are fundamentally playing themselves in the show," says Mallett.
Although the play doesn’t focus on the negative that exists now, he says we must shake the idea that we have already accomplished everything.
"In a way, it’s talking about successful change through revolution," says Mallett. "But what’s exposed in that is also the hypocrisy that we think we live in this place where there is more mutual respect than there is. Obviously there are still many problems in terms of racism, homophobia and sexism.
"It’s not to disrespect the progress that we have made. It’s simply saying, ‘Don’t pat yourself on the back too hard because there’s still revolutions to be launched that are going to take this even further.’" |
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