DETAILS

Italian American Reconciliation presented by Rogues Theatre
Pumphouse Theatre
Wednesday, February 24 - Saturday, March 6

More in: Theatre

Nearly 10 years have passed since Christianne Hirt and Joe-Norman Shaw, the founders of popular Calgary acting studio Company of Rogues, decided to launch a companion theatre company, Rogues Theatre. Its purpose was to be a sort of bridge between the acting development undertaken in class and the professional stage.

For its inaugural production, Shaw, who is the artistic director, chose John Patrick Shanley’s gritty comedy Italian American Reconciliation.

“Italian American Reconciliation is so much me. Even though I’m not Italian, I have a great affection for the culture, the operas of Puccini, the love of good food and drink, the love of family and friends, the love of life and living it to its fullest,” says Shaw.

Aside from the 2002-03 season, when Shaw was busy pursuing his master of fine arts at the University of Calgary, shooting the film Crazy Canucks in Austria and teaching drama at the U of C, Rogues Theatre has offered at least two shows every year since 2000.

A decade later, the company is remounting Italian American Reconciliation to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

The play tells the story of Huey, who has been unable to put the divorce from his “vampire-vulture-monster-fiend” wife, Janice, fully behind him. Huey feels the only way he can restore his manhood, and be able to love another woman, is by reconciling with Janice. With echoes of Cyrano de Bergerac, Huey’s friend, Aldo, steps in as a go-between, though he thinks Huey’s plan is madness and decides to save him from reconciliation by wooing Janice himself.

“It’s about love; it’s about relationships — the things men and women go through in that relationship dance,” says Shaw. “It’s an unabashedly romantic play with a big Italian heart. It’s very New York; it’s got that edge.”

When Rogues Theatre first presented the show, they didn’t even have a designer. Instead, they created the sets themselves, a tricky task for a play with three different environments. Ten years on, they have a designer in Brad Leavitt, a completely different cast and a decade of experience to put into the production.

“You start afresh. You ask yourself, ‘What does the play mean to me now?’” says Shaw of the remount.

He pauses for a moment to reflect on the past decade.

“Since we started out, we’ve honed our vision a bit to produce plays that explore the complexity of the contemporary human experience,” he says of the company’s mandate. Rogues has also become an important venue to launch fledgling artists into the community.

“We try to do the kind of work that not a lot of other companies are offering. We try to mount shows that haven’t been done here before,” says Shaw. It’s a directive that has seen Rogues Theatre produce a number of Shanley plays including Savage in Limbo, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and last fall’s A Dreamer Examines His Pillow. (Shanley is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt, which went on to become an Oscar-nominated film.) As well, a number of Canadian plays have found themselves on the bill throughout the company’s decade-long history, including works by George F. Walker, Linda Griffiths and Calgary playwrights Clem Martini and Simon Mallett.

Shaw says one of the company’s production highlights occurred during the 2006-07 season, when Rogues Theatre mounted Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train starring former CFL quarterback Khari Jones who, Shaw adds, is also a “fantastic actor.”

“Ultimately, as a company, our message is optimistic. While we know all of us as humans go through our struggles, trials and tribulations, that makes us deeper, more interesting, involved people. I love working on material that examines that,” says Shaw.

“Having a theatre company survive in this city for 10 years is a miracle,” he adds. “I hope people will come out and celebrate the work of Shanley and the 10 years we’ve been putting on theatre in this city.”