>>PREVIEW
THIS IS CANCER!
Runs until March 4
Written by Bruce Horak and Rebecca Northan
playRites Festival
Alberta Theatre Projects
Big Secret Theatre (Epcor Centre)
Does cancer have a face? X-rays offer black and white glimpses of the rampantly reproducing cells, and a cross-section of a tumour is said to look like a crab – hence the Greek origin in "Cancer" – but there is still an ironic facelessness to a disease whose impact is so personal. But if there’s an identity to be found, performers Bruce Horak and Rebecca Northan hope to find it.
Originally titled An Intimate Evening with Cancer when it opened at Toronto’s Summerworks Festival in 2006, This is Cancer! is a one-man show featuring audience interaction, live music and 75 minutes with the disease itself, played by Horak. Appearing minimally with piano accompaniment (Waylen Miki), a microphone and a comfortable chair, Cancer is imagined as a cathartic figure (the show, stresses Northan, is making fun of the disease and not its victims) whose enthusiasm ultimately and selfishly overwhelms those he becomes obsessed with.
"(The character) is based on the idea that the actual Cancer is cells that don’t know when to quit," says Northan. "He’s basically an out-of-control teenager, doesn’t have any clue of his surroundings or mortality.
"We’re putting this buffoon in a position where we can all feel a bit superior and laugh about him."
The idea for the character of Cancer came after Horak researched clowning therapy at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Kids, a concept that was particularly resonant for him after his own childhood hospital experiences as a cancer patient. Hoping to apply the same therapeutic principles to an adult performance, Horak began performing the character at cabarets and comedy nights, eventually leading to its run at Summerworks.
Less than a week before the show opens at Alberta Theatre Projects’s playRites Festival, changes are still being made to the production, including a complete rewrite of the show’s second half after an invitational preview in Toronto last week. Asked if they feel comfortable in their collaborative background with such a short time frame, Northan responds simply by saying: "Yeah, we’re married."
The two met in 1995 as performers in Mount Royal College’s annual Shakespeare in the Park, forming their own parallel company, Upstart Crows, the next year. Both veterans of Loose Moose, an improv background they draw from as they continue to create the show, the two were married last spring at the company’s Ramsay headquarters. In fact, Northan and Horak have lately been bringing work home, rehearsing This is Cancer! in their Toronto loft.
"It’s a good thing we like each other," says Horak.
Northan and Horak also share personal experience with cancer. Horak lost an eye to bilateral retinoblastoma, the same condition that blinded jazz guitarist Jeff Healey, and both have lost a parent to the disease. In fact, Northan lost her mother in only eight weeks while performing in the 1996 playRites acting ensemble.
"In a way it’s appropriate that we do our initial opening at playRites," says Northan. "Karmically appropriate."
Counting on the pervasiveness of audience members’ cancer experiences, the production will also include a Q&A session following the show, as well as segments of interaction allowing audience members to query Cancer about loved ones. It’s a prescribed part of the show that both Northan and Horak realize will carry strong emotional connotations, a delicate issue smack in the middle of a comedy. But if taking things seriously is an essential part of the process, the two are just as concerned with moving along.
"We start the show with a real irreverent tone and that goes through the whole piece, and so with that in mind, as we get into the more raw places, it’s not that we dwell on them," says Horak. "Those are the moments that are real respectful, we go there for a moment and then get back into the irreverence."
"Performers want to channel things from their life onto the stage, and then as the audience member there’s always (the worry that) this is going to be drama therapy," says Northan. "Nobody wants to see that."
For both Horak and Northan, Cancer’s face is very human. Furthering the play’s direct approach to the disease, on opening night Horak will be accepting bids on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society in exchange for shaving his head. But even if This is Cancer! will ultimately create a recognizable identity for its namesake, there is one element its creators are still keeping close to their chest: his appearance.
"We blew our design budget on what he looks like," says Northan. "Whatever you imagine, it’s not that." |
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