>>PREVIEW
10 DAYS ON EARTH
The Rink-A-Dink Inc. production of Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes
Alberta Theatre Projects
Starts September 19
Martha Cohen Theatre (Epcor Centre)
For years, the press called Ronnie Burkett the bad boy of puppetry, a puppeteer playwright with a penchant for creating shows where the puppets were foul-mouthed and where Burkett, always the show’s sole performer, was an explicit presence. But then again, as the 49-year-old puppeteer points out, there’s nothing worse than a middle-aged bad boy.
Burkett’s previous production, a haunting portrait of beauty titled Provenance, was a departure from his previous work, an entirely scripted play that left no room for improvisation. Now, on Alberta Theatre Projects’ Martha Cohen stage (where Burkett first launched his company 20 years ago), Calgary audiences will watch as a man who once drew attention in high heels and stockings as the title character of One Yellow Rabbit’s Isla, Queen of the Nazi Love Camp, leaves the stage, surrendering it to his puppets in 10 Days on Earth.
"It was a hard one," says Burkett. "I tried every way under the sun to get myself down there, but because it’s a play about our central character’s growing aloneness, it seemed intrusive and false for me to be in the playing space."
Solitude is the centre of 10 Days on Earth’s premise, the story of a mentally-challenged, middle-aged man named Darrel whose mother, Ivy, passes away in her sleep. Without the ability to understand his mother’s death, Darrel lives for 10 days assuming she is simply asleep, without knowing that he is now alone. In Darrel’s naiveté, 10 Days on Earth asks: can we truly be alone if we aren’t aware of our own isolation?
"If I were to have actually sat down and thought about what I was doing, I probably wouldn’t have done it," says Burkett of writing a script around a mentally challenged protagonist. "But that’s true about most of the stuff I do."
Certainly, Burkett has built his reputation largely on productions that joyfully prick their audiences on thorny issues – his most successful work, The Memory Dress trilogy (Tinka’s New Dress, Streets of Blood and Happy), dealt variously with Canada’s tainted blood scandal, fascism and the second coming of Christ. But Burkett maintains that Darrel’s central role (comprising no less than 12 of the production’s 32 puppets) has less to do with confronting audiences than the basic need to realize a persistent voice in the puppet master’s head.
"Sometimes shows exist because they have a central idea I want to discuss, or a historical event that propels my brain to contemporize it, but this was character-driven," he says. "Long before I had a script or story idea, Darrel was such a fully formed character jostling to get out."
A fully grown man who begins his story unable to grasp the concept of his own mother’s death, his mind occupied by the storybook adventures of his favourite characters, Honeydog and Little Burp, Darrel may seem to be a familiar archetype, even the dreaded schlock of mainstream film. But for Burkett, following this man’s journey through 10 days of sudden, uninvited loneliness is more complex than simply pitiable.
"I made sure there’s no pity to be felt – empathy, I hope," says Burkett. "I’m so glad I didn’t approach it with a PC mindset, which is the worst kind of art, worst kind of anything really. I didn’t do a play where she does everything by the book – this is not the W (Network) movie of the week. I’ve had families come (to the production’s three-month run at Toronto’s CanStage) with their challenged children, and they’ve sent beautiful letters which said that their children recognized themselves in Darrel. You don’t know that setting out. But I’m glad I don’t have a little marketing button on my end."
While not present, Darrel’s mother serves an essential role in his independent life, providing the guidance and training that serves to prepare Darrel for her inevitable passing. Appearing in flashbacks, Ivy, like Darrel, is a human being simply trying to make her way through the world, dealing with the challenges of raising a mentally challenged son. Though Burkett usually engages in a research period before mounting a show, Ivy’s parenting techniques are entirely her own, reflecting the reality of a woman whose own research would have been limited by the constraints of the time she lived in.
"In the early ’60s, she might not have had the agencies or even the Oprah mentality to deal with her son, so she made it up as she went along," says Burkett. "Ivy doesn’t stop her life. Every Friday night she goes out for cocktails and to meet a man. She’s neither saint nor whore, she’s just trying to figure it out as she goes along."
Though the conclusion of Burkett’s run at ATP will signal the beginning of an international tour, he will be returning in January for a staged reading as part of the International Festival of Animated Objects, Calgary’s premier puppetry festival. Appropriately, it was at 2005’s festival that Burkett first unveiled 10 Days on Earth, then as a series of excerpts. His upcoming work, titled Billy Twinkle, will be a semi-autobiographical work that, despite his earlier plans to stage as a one-man show, will instead remain in the same vein on which he has built his fame.
"I was just going to portray Billy and six other puppeteers, puppets would only exist as props, not as characters," says Burkett. "But as I’ve been working on Billy, it strikes me that I already work in a form that’s limitless. In terms of doing a one-man show without puppets, I think I’ve let that go, it’s so ordinary. I think I’m just touching the tip of the iceberg in terms of what I can do, so I’m not keen to turn my back on it.
"I’ve come up with one-man shows for other people," he offers, adding, "but then when the people start coming to mind, I get piggish and clam up, so I’m really doomed as a playwright in that regard."
After more than 20 years touring with his Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes, and 30 since first joining the legendary Bill Baird’s New York company in 1976, Burkett concedes that the allure of touring may be waning, even as he remains a popular commodity both in Canada and abroad. But even when considering smaller, festival or venue-specific creations, Burkett is certain on one point.
"I fully expect to go until the day I drop," he says. "I’ve never met a puppeteer who really retires. I really do feel like I’m kind of just getting a handle on what I’m doing. I’d like to do another 10 shows, which represents about 20 years. I wonder if I need to calm down a bit on the international touring and focus on domestic work.
"Getting to an airport three to four hours in advance of the flight is really charmless," he adds sardonically. |
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