Sudbury Theatre Centre patrons are treated to something completely different with the presentation of Rearview by Canadian playwright Giles Poulin-Denis.
For this co-production with Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario (TNO), STC has not only borrowed TNO's team, artistic director Geneviève Pineault directs with Sophie Ducharme providing stage management, they have turned the STC auditorium into a replica of TNO's intimate black box theatre.
The audience sits on the stage with a rear view: the backstage is the set which is framed to look like a car's rearview mirror.
Considering the STC is intimate with less than 300 seats, one wonders if the black box conversion with 100 seats is necessary to appreciate and enjoy this play about life, death and self discovery in a Sturgeon Falls motel room. (The women behind me complained about the uncomfortable folding chairs.)
Ryan Demers plays Guy Trudel, a 27-year old Montrealer who escapes consuming urbanites at a party by taking a road trip in northeastern Ontario down Highway 17 in his rusty car named Emma.
Demers, the talented Sudbury actor who studied at Thorneloe University, played the same part last month at TNO during the French-language production of Rearview.
He gets full marks for his engaging performance in this one-act, one-actor play. He delivers the writer's poetic and, at times compelling, monologue flawlessly and convincingly. He gets a physical workout thanks to the animated choreography of movement director, Sudbury's Lauren Foy.
Rearview, which was written and first produced in French in Saskatoon in 2009, was nominated for a Governor General Award; the English translation was done by the writer with Maureen Labonte. The art of translating and producing a French play into English cannot be underestimated.
STC and TNO must be congratulated for this inspired collaboration, their first in their 45-year histories. The result is interesting and engaging Sudbury-made theatre.
It allows an English audience a chance to see French-Canadian theatre and encourage them to attend other innovative TNO productions. TNO offers English surtitles at selected performances.
Rearview’s writer, Poulin-Denis, appears at TNO Nov. 10, 11, and 12 in Straight Jacket Winter, a play he co-wrote and co-directs with Esther Duquette. (English surtitle performances are Nov. 12 at 2 and 8 pm.
Rearview continues at STC to Nov. 9. The next STC production is more traditional. It’s a Wonderful Life, based on the 1946 Christmas movie of the same name, opens Dec. 1.
Vicki Gilhula is associate publisher and editor of Sudbury Living magazine.
