Segal Centre to Present TRAVESTIES, 4/12-5/3
By: Tyler Peterson Mar. 26, 2015
Acclaimed Montreal filmmaker Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky, Good Neighbours) will direct Tom Stoppard's Tony Award-winning historical comedy Travesties in a new Segal Centre production from April 12 - May 3, 2015.
With a nod to Oscar Wilde's dazzling wit and wordplay, calamitous mix-ups and humorous plot twists reminiscent of Wilde's farcical masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, Travesties is an exuberant and entertaining exploration of art, philosophy and politics born out of the imagination of award-winning European playwright Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Arcardia).
Travesties conjures a fictional meeting of three of the 20th Century's most revolutionary minds - communist leader Vladimir Lenin, Irish author James Joyce and Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara, in Zurich, Switzerland at the height of World War I. Stoppard cleverly spins this historical coincidence into a masterful and absurdly funny play, a speculative portrait of a meeting of these influential men as seen through the faulty and wholly riveting memory of aging British consulate Henry Carr, who was also living in Zurich at the time.
Jacob Tierney, the lauded Montreal film director behind such critical hits as The Trotsky and Good Neighbours, makes his stage directing debut with Stoppard's 1974 classic:
"Tom Stoppard is without a doubt one of our greatest living playwrights. What he brilliantly does in Travesties is turn Henry Carr's memory into a production of Oscar Wilde's famous play, with all these characters re-enacting some of iconic parts: The Butler, Gwendolen, Cecily. He takes what is a personal injury Carr has harboured and turns it into a farce," said Tierney, who brings his trademark touch of humour and cinematic flair to this new Segal Centre production.
"This play is about the lies we tell ourselves as we get older, the way we construct our memories -- there is an endless source of humour to be mined from it. Getting to deal with written material as strong as this is very exciting," he continues.
Under Tierney's direction, an impressive cast of eight will enact Stoppard's scintillating script and memorable characters. As Henry Carr, Greg Ellwand is joined by Martin Sims as avant-garde poet Tristan Tzara, Jon Lachlan Stewart as Irish exile and author James Joyce and Daniel Lillford as Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. Ellen David, Pierre Brault, Anne Cassar and Chala Hunter round off the ensemble.
An equally talented design team bring Carr's imagined comedy of errors alive on stage: Pierre-Étienne Locas (set design), Louise Bourret (costumes), Nicolas Descoteaux (lighting) and Dmitri Marine (Sound Design).
At the heart of Travesties is the elusive character of Henry Carr, whose real-life backstory inspired Stoppard's play. Born in 1894, Henry Wilfred Carr found himself working in the British Consulate in Zurich during World War I, following a brief stint in the British Military Service. Carr was reported to have crossed paths with James Joyce in 1917, while the Irish author was writing his landmark novel Ulysses. Carr was recruited to join Joyce's recently formed theatre troupe "The English Players," tasked with presenting plays in English in Zurich. What was their inaugural production? None other than Oscar Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest! But when Carr's financial investment in the production was not reimbursed, a vicious law-suit ensued. Joyce eventually lost in court but got his revenge by immortalizing Carr in Ulysses as Private Carr, a repugnant, drunken soldier. And Carr? He married and moved to Montreal, Canada where he lived until 1933 when he moved back to England where he lived until his death in 1962.
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