Colin O'Connor

I, Claudia, a much-loved Canadian play, comes to Alberta Theatre Projects

DETAILS

I, Claudia presented by Alberta Theatre Projects
Martha Cohen Theatre
Tuesday, October 20 - Sunday, November 8

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Although I, Claudia tells the tale of a 12-year-old girl struggling with the divorce and imminent remarriage of her father, the duo responsible for Alberta Theatre Projects’ production is a solid family unit.

It’s not just that director Chris Abraham and actress Liisa Repo-Martell are married with a child, they’re also so close to this script and its life history that you could consider it an extension of their family. They even met about the same time that the script entered their lives.

“It actually started, it would have been more than a decade ago now, Liisa and I met probably 11 years ago and at that time Liisa was living with [playwright] Kristen Thompson. We started dating and I started to know Kristen as I was getting to know Liisa,” says Abraham.

Repo-Martell was there for the first hints of what would become a much-loved Canadian production, which was turned into a film, also directed by Abraham, in 2004. “We were living together and it was just lovely to have been there at the very, very inception of I, Claudia. We talked one night and she said, ‘I think I want to maybe, maybe I want to write a play one day and I think it should be about divorce,’” says Repo-Martell.

“So I loved that I was there with a little sparkle in her eye.”

The one-woman play follows the young Claudia as she struggles with the after-effects of divorce and the introduction of a new woman into her father’s life: Leslie. I, Claudia is about the transformative power of loss — how it can be a catalyst for creativity and growth.

Repo-Martell plays all four characters, the Grandfather, the janitor, Leslie and Claudia. Masks help to separate the characters, who deliver monologues to the audience.

The seeds for the play started with Thompson improvising characters with a set of masks she had used while attending the National Theatre School in Montreal. “Then she sort of more formally began to create the piece through improvisation, transcribing the conversations,” says Abraham. “I got involved at the point where she had about 150 pages of solid improvisation that she was working with — to whittle down and make connections. So I was involved dramaturgically in the first production and directed the first production.”

Thompson was the original actress in the production, but Repo-Martell felt comfortable assuming the role from the playwright. “I feel like I was uniquely placed to take over it. I’ve been there for so long and seen it a million times and been a part of conversations about the origin of all these things, so it felt like it would be a good fit,” she says.

“I also feel like it didn’t cramp my style at all to basically copy Kristen,” she adds with a laugh.

“I think it’s evolved and deepened and I feel like I’m not doing that now, but that felt like a fun and satisfying thing to do, so I didn’t feel any particular need to put my own stamp on it. Also Chris was directing both of us, so he was leading me the same way he was leading Kristen.”

The focus of the play isn’t on the minimal set, but rather the success of the production rests on the audience’s relationship with the characters.

Both the actress and the director are happy to be touring the production across the country and are eyeing an overseas tour in a quest to introduce as many people as possible to the play. It’s a production that’s obviously close to their hearts.

As Repo-Martell says, “It’s all in the family.”