The War of 1812. The History of the Village of the Small Huts (18112-15). A unique and unforgettable history lesson!!
Photo: Michael Cooper
Never has a lesson in Canadian history been such an exciting theatrical experience of laughter and horror. Brent Snyder’s overture ushers us into this Phantasmagoria dream world of Michael Hollingsworth, writer and director of the show. The writer even tells us this is a “Comedy of Manners, an historical epic, [showing] the goons of history in their own Goon show, a Canadian book of the dead, a merry tale told by ghosts and demons.”
That last little bit is the part I like. That is essentially what I saw: a tale told by theatrical ghosts and demons that brings us back to French Theatre of the 18th and 19th centuries. A performance in the French tradition the theatre of the “ Grand Gignol”.
The terrifyingly blood spattered puppets who kill and maim, who show us sliced off arms, bleeding shoulders and tortured bodies with huge white grinning faces. The horror that is also related to the theatre of Phantasmagoria, dreams, strange lights, ghosts of times past who return in this vicious parody of Canadian/American border history laced with twisted Shakespeare “Let loose the hogs of hell!” And then there is the grotesque Ubuesque nature of these historical heroes, creatures, inherited from great puppets with mask-like faces, incarnations of stupidity, outrageousness, cruelty ugly trivial monsters let out in a world that is coming to an end.. Their painted faces with huge lips and highly decorated hairdos all sparkling in the dark. The snarling British General Fitzgibbons leading his Bloody boys from Britain are just a grotesque as the Shaman licking the freshly cut bloody scalp of an American soldier. It’s all about kill, kill and kill to retain power but it’s funny! That is the wondrous thing. .
Michael Hollingsworth and his merry band of actors, singers, artists, musicians, lighting and costume designers, and all the wonderful people involved in this production, have undertaken a most meticulous examination of that period of American, British and First People’s relations. Historical narrative which is the basis of it all, in these many sketches, is reduced to its most ridiculous in this definitely anti-war show where they emphasize the incompetence and the mutual slaughter on each side. The outcome is as tragic as it is ambiguous because,at the end, nothing seems to have changed except that many great generals as well as Tecumseh the great Shawnee chief, leader of the First Nations confederacy fighting with the British, all died.
The characters are heightened puppets manipulated by some invisible force: British generals who foppishly wave their lace hankies around or who sadistically torture their soldiers; the American “long knives” chasing the settlers and Tecumseh and his whistling men hiding in the forest. There we are with the American sea-sick soldiers, vomitting over the side of the boat while their Generals dance light footed on the decks as they approach the shore of what was the original city of Toronto, coming in to destroy that British enclave. The battle full of canon fire, explosions and death is like a magnificent caricture beautifully orchestrated. The Americans believe the British want to be liberated from their cruel Monarch, the British are convinced that Democracy (American Style ) is for idiots. IT is all one great stupid misunderstanding, as Hollingsworth sets it up on a stage in a way that suggests a Punch and Judy show. Never has history made so much sense!
It was hilarious and just as confusing as it was enlightening. Not because the play was not clear but because the events moved quickly and caught up with each other until it was hard to know where we were and who was doing what. Of course the costumes clarified the action immediately and told us on which side of the border we were. However, as the confrontations succeed each other with split second rapidity, and even as the men in charge keep shifting, dying or leaving, the clever battle strategies come to light, the confrontations are heightened, the killing moves into slow motion as it intensifies and allows 4 actors to give us the impression we are watching 400. It quickly becomes obvious that Andy Moro’s lighting effects produced extremely important illusion creating techniques. .
His lighting design created that world of terrifying puppets floating around as ghosts in a nightmarish world. No light filters into the audience. We are sitting in pitch darkness. We can’t even see our neighbours. The characters that appear in that frontal proscenium theatre space, never enter. They are suddenly there as the light flashes and they glow in the dark. Nor do they exit, they just disappear. Inhuman figures in the night. Apparitions deftly transported by the light, the light that defines not only their movements but the space around them. Thanks to that glowing light, they are suddenly, above, below, to the right or to the left. They move without appearing to move because the light transforms the space around them and the music props up the imaginary world where we would like them to be. That use of light in such a precise and creative manner, gave us insights into its function that we never suspected. It was truly marvellous.
Official historians tell us that an authentic Canadian conscience emerged from this encounter with the Americans but, after this joyously ferocious clash of strange creatures, it will be difficult to see our history the way official historians tell us we should see it. Why?, because since history appears to be the product of official documents, just as much as the product of the historian’s talents as writers of fiction and directors of theatre, none of it is the ultimate truth. Thus, why can’t we choose to believe the version we prefer? This exciting phantasmagoria of history clearly reveals the immense talent of Michael Hollingsworth and his creative team and his lesson in history will certainly not be easy to forget. .
The War of 1812, the Video Cabaret, do not miss this.
It plays at Arts Court all week. Performances are at 8pm