When are they going to make Ducktales: The Re-Tooling?
DETAILS
Vertigo Theatre
Wednesday, November 14 - Sunday, November 25
More in: Theatre
"The penis is a funny looking thing," says Ryan Luhning, artistic director of Calgary's Ground Zero Theatre. After two sold-out runs five years ago, Ground Zero and Hit and Myth are mounting a new version of the hit show CockTales: The Re-Tooling.
"So, what can this 'play about the penis' possibly offer to a woman?" I boldly venture. He quickly counters with, "What can’t it offer? During the first run of the show, lots of women came. Guys don't talk about it with their lady friends. Guys don't talk about it with their guy friends. This is a chance for everybody to find out about it."
Luhning even recalls a woman in her 80s who saw the show and said, "I had four boys, and I had no idea all that they went through."
"Men have body issues, too," says Luhning. "We're just as inundated in society as women are as to what the male body should look like. But, because we're men, we're expected to put up a solid front and say, ‘I am who I am.’
"The idea for the show came from a bunch of guys thinking, ‘wouldn't it be cool to be vulnerable?’" he continues. "To take the stereotypes of men and expose them, twist them around a bit, and show some vulnerability?"
So, CockTales was conceived. Like the original, CockTales: The Re-Tooling consists of more than a dozen monologues offering stories about the penis. Calgary actors and playwrights, including Eugene Stickland, Daniel Libman and Luhning have written the show’s monologues in the show.
Luhning says they cover a variety of issues from what to do when you see spots "down there," to “My Father's Penis,” about a guy's experience helping his dying father use the washroom.
Despite some of this (unexpectedly) serious content, he says cast and crew have endeavoured to keep the overall tone of the show light and humorous because, as Luhning says, if guys ever sit around and talk about their members, "they'd be doing it in a bar, drinking booze, making jokes."
A few years ago, Ground Zero experimented with CockTales: Mr. and Misconceptions that included female perspectives. Luhning says it didn't resonate as well as the original, because women approached the anatomical exploration with a more serious bent than men. "It has to stay humorous, even when we delve into the more serious parts," he emphasizes. Ground Zero has even re-vamped the performance's setting to a cabaret format, complete with drinks, songs and choreography.
