>>PREVIEW
DOWN WITH UP WITH PEOPLE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ANTHONY CURTOLA
One Yellow Rabbit
Starts September 20
Big Secret Theatre (Epcor Centre)
"You’ve never seen him!" Blake Brooker exclaims when I tell him about the absence of Anthony Curtola in my life.
Well, no, I haven’t seen him. But I have read his blog on MySpace (www.myspace.com/anthonycurtola) and requested to be his friend. It seems like a guy such as Mr. Curtola could use a few friends. Only, maybe it should be noted that Mr. Curtola – and his subsequent story – is fictitious. The only way to uncover the source was to have a conversation with the show’s director and writer, One Yellow Rabbit’s Blake Brooker.
"It’s a comedy," says Brooker. "And this character that Andy Curtis created – I don’t know, 10 years ago – was such a weird guy. He’s like David Niven was crossed with Keith Richards – if Niven met Richards in Medicine Hat in 1964 and there was such a thing as a gay marriage, they married, and if there was such a thing as a man bearing a child and one of them had gotten pregnant by the other one and bore a child. That thing would be Anthony Curtola. But that’s the persona, I guess.
"(Mr. Curtola) is a character that Andy made up, and he’s just this guy that comes from Medicine Hat, but he’s got a British accent," Brooker says. "So he obviously doesn’t fit where he comes from – he perennially doesn’t fit where he comes from. He’s a fantasist, fantasizing constantly about a way to make his life more comfortable than what it really is. Which is sort of like most of us. Most of us live in a place of imagination – within ourselves, certainly with our friends, we create webs of imaginariness. And this is a guy, a very solo guy, who has this sensibility of looking at the world and feeling that he’s participating in a much grander level than he actually is."
Brooker likens Up With Down With People to the seven possible narratives that emerge within storytelling.
"This is the story of a person who is imagining a life that’s larger than his own," he says. "But it’s kind of surreal. And so his viewpoint is somewhat surreal, and I think it highlights the abilities of (actor) Andy Curtis. It’s a character that he can put himself into – you know, it’s not like a stand-up comic which is always about the personality of the individual, this is a persona. It’s an invention. It’s more liberating, I think – it can be a little bit more freaky, funny, with more freedom to it."
Part of Mr. Curtola’s identity is that he grew up as the only orphan in Medicine Hat’s orphanage. Due to this experience, he conjured up a few imaginary friends to give him comfort in his solitude. These entities include accompanying dancing girls – which may make an appearance in the show.
Brooker had no problem writing a script for Andy Curtis’ pre-existing character: "It’s what I do, I write for characters," he says, likening the development of Mr. Curtola to the evolution of a cartoon character.
"He’s been the MC at a number of cabarets we’ve had at One Yellow Rabbit, he’s been an MC at the Eddies, and in a movie or two… he’s been around dozens of times, but he’s never had a show," he says.
And would one like to actually meet Mr. Curtola? Mr. Brooker thinks so.
"He’s very eccentric, but also very charming. You’d find rather quickly if you talk to him, you assume that he’s seeking to escape the orbit of his conventional personality – his quotidian, daily normal-guy-from-Medicine Hat self. In fact, he’s so afraid of it, he’s adopted this other persona. I think the central point of the compass of Anthony Curtola is a longing to be distinguished, a longing to be different, a longing to be special."
Which makes him sound no different than you or I. "He sounds like every one on Macleod Trail at any given time," Brooker laughs. |
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