The theatre institution returns to its roots with an open-air performance of They All Do It
They All Do It is a comedic study in juxtaposition
After a two-year hiatus from summer performance in the verdant Strathcona Park, Odyssey Theatre returns to its bread and butter: theatre under the stars. This year the company presents They All Do It, a commissioned work from local playwright Jan Irwin. Loosely based on the opera Cosi fan tutte, the company aims to straddle the divide between the old-fashioned classical opera and contemporary theatre with a genre-mixing, intellectually interesting show.
One pair of actors will be swathed in commedia dell’arte masks, playing the stock character roles found in that form of late-medieval Italian theatre. They mix and interact with a cast of unmasked contemporary-style actors, creating moments of high humour and satire as the two worlds juxtapose, according to director Paul Griffin.
“It gives it a tension between moments that are honest in realistic theatre, and leaves us the ability to go larger-than-life,” says Griffin. “Unlike a farce, where everything constantly goes at a madcap pace, there are moments in here when unmasked characters can just become a little more honest. And I think that because of the contrast, everything is underlined more.”
One of the leading actors, Benjamin Clost, echoes Griffin’s enthusiasm about the nature and structure of the project – the contemporary exploration of classical devices. The plot “loosely” follows the show but is “updated for our current culture,” the actors “slip in and out of verse [where there’s a cadence in the speech].”
Clost speaks engagingly about their desire to maintain an operatic feel to what is essentially a play. Although there are moments of song, this isn’t a musical. But to preserve the original effect of the opera “there are moments that are heightened: the lights change and all the characters face the audience and talk about their inner feelings all together. If this were an opera, we’d be singing in harmony, he says. “Sometimes we’d be speaking in unison, where our intentions and objectives overlap. I’ve never really seen anything like it – it’s fascinating.”
The commedia element of this play serves another purpose as well: It helps keep the farce frothy and constantly mobile. The performances are “sort of amped up when the two masked characters are on the stage,” says Clost. And even with a single masked character on stage, their partners are pulled into the world of comedy, having to dial up their performances and reactions to match their cartoonish counterparts.
Over the past few years, Odyssey Theatre has been branching out into more serious forums of theatre. The desire to evolve is always admirable, and is more necessary than people realize in a city as small as Ottawa, but I’m glad to see Odyssey remembering and celebrating its roots.
As appeared in the Ottawa XPress – July 22, 2010
http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/stage/stage.aspx?iIDArticle=20181
