Twelfth Night Celebration. The Company of Fools inaugurates its 25th Season
Restes and Pommes frites…emblematic characters of the Cie of Fools.
Presented by Scott Florence, Catriona Leg, Al Connor and Geoff Mcbride confirmed the “Fools” reputation as one of the most unique Shakespearean companies in Canada and the third oldest professional theatre company in Ottawa.
Raff, The Little Prince. latest member of the Company of Fools. Photo. Caroline Phillips.
Catriona Leger now with the Company of Fools.
Entering into its 25th season as a creator of playful parodies of Shakespeare’s plays, the Company seems to be investigating new theatrical techniques to respond to a slight shift in its audiences. The first part of the evening was an illustration of a work in progress process hosted by Scott Florence. The challenge they had given themselves was to show us how they are trying to develop interest in those plays on the part of young people, who, in spite of Shakespeare’s cultural cachet, are turned off by that convoluted language and those characters to whom they cannot relate at all.
The secret is to show young people how emotions, situations and characters in the Bard’s plays can find parallel examples in our own personal experience. So, using “if music be the food of love…” to justify introducing contemporary songs about love by popular music taken from Michael Jackson, George Michael, Star Treck, Katie Perry and many more, Scott began telling the story of the Duke of Orsino, of Viola disguised as a boy and all the of situations were then thrown out to the audience by asking them to tell about similar experiences they might have had. “Did you have a love at first sight experience”, “did you marry after one month”, “did anyone ever send you a false letter making you believe a fellow or a girl loved you when he/she didn’t”, “has anyone here eloped”, and what about your gender body language, do you create gender ambiguity by the way you move?”. The questions became more and more intimate, and the evening turned into a session of “true confessions”, which moved us away from the play and closer to the juicy details of these brave individuals who dared bare their lives in public.
To my mind, this whole process misses the boat as far as making Shakespeare interesting for adults and young people is concerned…after all what character is more ridiculous and yet more pathetic than Malvoleo, as Greg Kramer’s beautiful performance showed us at the Ottawa Theatre School a few years ago in a staging by Andy Massingham. Greg is no longer with us but the ehe generated came back to excellent acting and directing . As simple as that. I could also mention Rona Waddington’s violent version of Hamlet last summer that was about the most exciting local Hamlet I have ever seen. However for a younger audience, such a process of personal confession might just help to get them more involved. In any case all this is still at a developmental stage and the Fool’s show Shakespeare and You will be presented in the Spring
The second part of the evening was back to traditional Fool’s entertainment with two excellent brief readings from future productions. Firstly a bit with Geoff McBride and Al Connors showing us how a script is written in 48 hours which turned into a hilarious parody of improve theatre which they both carried off with great precision. This was their intended contribution to the Ottawa Theatre Challenge to take place on World Theatre Day, March 27, proceeds of which will go to the Actor’s fund of Canada.
Finally a scene from their upcoming summer show, Shakespeare in the park, shows us the Fool’s style of character development in As You Like It. Catriona becoming a slyly sadistic/dominatrix shepherdess Phebe, plays off with Geoff McBride’s masochistic version of the shepherd Silvius. That is Fool’s theatre at its best and I am looking forward to seeing that in Strathcona park this summer. Along with the draw, the cake, the veggies and dips it was a fun evening, an excellent recipe for getting donations that might be emulated by other groups in Ottawa. However, the BIG star of the evening was tiny little three year old with blond hair and a loud voice, wearing a crooked crown, who kept yelling out his opinions and then suddenly appearing on stage. Following in daddy Scott’s footsteps, this sample of the new generation of Fools will no doubt need no exercises to find Shakespeare “relevant” because he already lives in a theatrical world of magic and imagination! How lucky he is!!
Best to all the Fools for this new 25th year of their existence.