>>PREVIEW
THE KNOWING BIRD
Opens February 10
Written by Ron Chambers
playRites Festival
Alberta Theatre Projects
Martha Cohen Theatre (Epcor Centre)
As if in a confessional, Ron Chambers admits to owning a truck.
Not unusual, considering he lives in a rural home ensnared by a myriad of back roads. This is Alberta, where he joins the ranks of proud truck owners probably numbering in the tens of thousands. Not that Chambers is proud. A playwright with deep, blue-collar roots who grew up on a dairy farm in Brandon, Manitoba, his truck is just one of the many problems of the world.
"What really frightens me about the world now is the self-indulgence," says Chambers. "There’s no thought of consequences. It’s the idea of being more important than the future. I’ll admit, I’m equally guilty of that, I drive a big truck. I feel terrible about that truck."
Chambers laments his guilt with The Knowing Bird, a play debuting at Alberta Theatre Projects’ playRites Festival. Not about a truck, this comedy deals heavily in the way guilt can shape our lives and the relationships within. Which may not sound so hilarious, but it does involve a very fat man named Walt. The play begins with Walt calling the paramedics during his third heart attack, as if he was ordering a pizza. Confronted by his daughter and doctor, Walt begrudgingly re-examines his life.
"At first, I wanted to write something more accessible to a broader audience," explains Chambers. "But I also wanted to write about guilt. I’m talking about guilt, but not moralizing without sharing in some of that guilt myself. I thought fat was an interesting metaphor for damaging self-indulgence. You know, how we humans manage to do things that are bad for us, but do them anyway."
More than just a comedy about a fat guy, A Knowing Bird was a chance for Chambers to re-examine his own relationship with his daughter. The play has Walt considering his relationship with his daughter after realizing she has grown up shallow and materialistic. He wonders where he went wrong, and Chambers worries about going through that process himself.
"My daughter is only six years old," he says. "Given the world she’s growing into, these kinds of experiences may happen and I wanted to know how I would deal with them. I want her to be a good person and I’m worried about that. There’s so much out there to make you banal. This is me trying to write something for my daughter."
His truck. His future relationship with his daughter. Add one more to Chambers’s guilt list – patriotism. Throughout his career, the Canadian playwright has specialized in characters existing on the margins of society, forced to deal with their own lots in life in a generic North American locale. His new play gave him a chance to assuage his guilt over the motherland.
"As a kid growing up watching American TV, there always seemed to be this self-assuredness Americans had," he says. "They celebrated their history and existence as Americans. Canadians have been a bit self-conscious doing that. That’s translated into my writing.
"I’ve never put my plays in a particular time and place by actually saying it takes place here or in this city. This play is the first time I actually have characters refer to themselves as Canadian. I don’t know, it’s some kind of neurosis you get over about actually putting the word ‘Canada’ in a play." |
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