Three actors from Angels and Heroes present three takes on dark comedies at Bus Stop Theatre
By ANDREA NEMETZ Entertainment Reporter sun. Jun 1 - 4:31 AM
Garry Williams, left, Ann Doyle and Stewart Legere perform in Fewer Emergencies, a series of three plays written by Martin Crimp. Richie Wilcox, Tara Patriquin and Tyler Foley each direct one of the dark comedies in the production, running Tuesday to June 8, at the Bus Stop Theatre, 2203 Gottingen St., Halifax. (Eric Wynne / Staff)
How much information is too much?
In Fewer Emergencies, being staged by Angels and Heroes at the Bus Stop Theatre, 2203 Gottingen St., Halifax, Tuesday to Sunday, June 8, both oversharing and not sharing enough come in for scrutiny.
Written by Martin Crimp, the series of three plays — Whole Blue Sky, Face to the Wall and Fewer Emergencies — were designed to be performed together, says Richie Wilcox, A&H co-founder.
""They are 20 minutes each, but Martin Crimp packs a lot into a small script. You get more out of it than a three-hour play.""
Wilcox, who has just finished up his master’s degree in theatre directing at Texas State University, directed Face to the Wall in Texas and loved it so much he sent the scripts back to Halifax.
""(A&H) co-founder Tara Patriquin suggested we divvy them up as we have three talented directors in our company and we thought it would be interesting to see three different styles in one night.""
The first piece, Whole Blue Sky directed by Wilcox, focuses on a failed marriage. The second, Face to the Wall directed by Tyler Foley, explores the questions surrounding a school-shooting massacre and the third, Fewer Emergencies directed by Patriquin, refers back to the family in Whole Blue Sky and focuses on their injured child.
The plays feature performances by Ann Doyle, Stewart Legere and Garry Williams, founder of DaPoPo theatre.
Legere, who starred in Antigone and Oh Dad, Poor Dad with A&H and Penny Dreadful with Zuppa Circus, for which he won a Merritt Award as Nova Scotia’s best supporting actor earlier this year, thinks working with the three directors is an awesome idea.
He’s worked with both Wilcox and Foley as directors before and with Patriquin as an actor.
""There was no way to say no,"" he says, over a late breakfast at Smith’s Bakery. ""With the limited time to put it together (two-and-a-half weeks) it’s a challenge. The commitment is huge, but exciting.""
""The plays are very open, just text. At the first reading it seemed very absurd, and hard to place a throughline or plot. But as you go along, you can really see what each is about.
""The plays are very character driven. Whole Blue Sky is about a woman and the difference between how her life looks and what really lies underneath the surface.
""The second one deals with a school shooting in a very frank but not gratituous way. It’s graphic, but discusses the events from a distance.
""Fewer Emergencies is the hardest, it’s a discussion about the state of the world and desensitization.""
Legere says because of the pace, the production is constantly engaging.
""It’s like how every song in a musical constantly advances the plot and character. Things are born and die within a little movement.""
It is interesting to see the same three actors play different characters, says Wilcox, who suspects the audience will make connections.
And he believes the writing is more important than the setting.
""It will translate to anywhere, it could be done in thousands of ways. . . in the Oval Office, in a diner, on Parliament Hill.
""At the centre of the scripts is the judgment of what society truly values presented in biting satire.
""It is pretty much all dark humour. One of the clearest manifestations of what I consider the mandate of Angels and Heroes to be. It’s absolutely silly and absolutely sublime,"" agrees Legere.
Wilcox, who will head to York University in Toronto this fall to take a PhD in theatre with a view to teaching and directing, says what sets Crimp’s scripts apart is that they are so theatrical.
""So many scripts that you read today can be translated easily to film, but these, on every level are theatrical.""
""They demand intensity. You need a clear idea from the actor and director or it falls apart,"" concurs Legere, who was also nominated for a Merritt for best supporting actor for Antigone (directed by Foley for Angels and Heroes).
While each of the actors in Fewer Emergencies plays more than one character, each of the three plays has one featured actor.
""I really have gotten to delve into my character in Face To the Wall,"" says Legere. ""He goes to some very dark places. We’ve all gone too far with something, or said something we might regret. This is a blown-up version of that and I can relate to it.
""We have to consider what is private and how responsible we should be for sharing our minds."
And while in Whole Blue Sky the audience finds out way too much information about the state of the woman’s marriage, in Fewer Emergencies the characters don’t say enough.
""It’s the opposite of oversharing. They allow themselves to be silence and do do violence to themselves in the same way oversharing does violence to other people.""
Tuesday is pay-what-you-can night. Wednesday to June 8 shows are 8 p.m. and June 8 there is a 2 p.m. matinee. There is no show Friday.
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door or reserved in advance by calling 223-5371.
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