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Spotlight On...
Jason Sherman
and The Wrecking Ball
The Wrecking Ball is a new project headed up by Toronto theatre
artists Jason Sherman, Ross Manson, Andrew Soren and Lara Azzopardi.
The idea behind the project is to create a Cabaret-style format of
relevant, political theatre. The first Wrecking Ball was a sold-out
success, with more then a hundred people turned away at the door.
How did something that came without any advertising, minimal press, and
a hushed vibe create such a great turnout? Granted, it had a powerhouse
line-up, with new works by Judith Thomson, David Young, and Jason
Sherman -- and had talent like Waneta Storms to give it voice –-- but
in a time when big-budget, big-name shows are having difficulty
getting audience members,
what explains The Wrecking Ball's unprecedented success?
I'm speaking with Jason
Sherman - writer of such plays as Three
in the Back, Two in the Head, Patience, League
of Nathans, and
most recently, Remnants. I'm curious to know how
the idea for a political cabaret arose. "The idea's been
percolating for a few years. It's a very conservative time for
the arts, in general, and I was frustrated by the lack of challenging
theatre around, specifically political theatre. The bigger, more
commercial theatres are shying away from anything that might
frighten off
an audience. This
has been going on for a while, and ultimately we decided that
we have to do more than just complain."
I ask him if he was inspired by any one thing in particular. Sherman
cites the theatre that's been produced in London the past year
as an example. "There's been more attention given
to politically-based theatre, like David Hare's Stuff Happens,
and docudramas on Guantanamo Bay. I can't attest the quality
of it, but the quantity is certainly there -- and it's happening,
people are talking about it."
What is the general intent behind The Wrecking Ball? "A
theatre is a place for debate and discussion, and questions of
who we are as people," Sherman
responds. "So, spurred on by what was happening elsewhere,we
came up with the idea to have a political cabaret, whereby people
would create short pieces that address contemporary issues, written
very quickly." Were
they worried about there being a lack of interest in this type
of theatre? "Yes,
but it turned out there was an interest -- and so from there, we
build."
I ask Sherman why generally, it appears that Canadians are turning away
from theatre that examines more political content, but at the same
time don't seem satisfied with what is produced. Sherman's
thought is that there are too many people afraid of any sort of
controversy, in the audience, and amongst the board members of
the major theatres. "There
definitely is a hunger out there for provocative theatre -- it's
just not getting produced. Where is the Edward Bond, the Howard Barker,
the Peter Barnes?"
He adds that with The Wrecking Ball, they're striving to put
some real guts into their work. "We don't have to be concerned
about season subscribers, or board members."
The thing that makes something like The Wrecking Ball stand out
is the fact that it is explosive, imaginative theatre. "The creators
take their skill as theatre artists, but base it on a particular
theme that ties them all together. They're not compromising their
ultimate aim for entertainment purposes, or trying to please any
one particular demographic."
When I ask Sherman about a theatrical phenomenon like Angels in
America by
Tony Kushner, could be come so critically successful, and commercially
pervasive, his reply is frank. "To me there were no surprises
in it (the play). It
didn't really probe that deeply. It was controversial certainly,
at the time it came out -- but now, it's just not enough."
Overall, I ask him, what is it that you and your collaborators want to
give the audience? "With The Wrecking Ball, we're
just trying to do something that matters to us, and I think we're
going to attract the people who want to go and see something, and
leave the theatre feeling something that they weren't feeling before.”
The next Wrecking Ball is slated for Monday February 28, 2005. The
Wrecking Ball is one performance only, and the box office opens at
6:00 pm. The show starts at 8:00 pm, in the Factory Theatre Studio
Café, 125 Bathurst Street. Tickets are pay-what-you can.
Rattling the chains this time around with BRAND NEW, ONE-WEEK OLD POLITICAL
PLAYS will be Karen Hines (The Pochsy Plays), Norm Foster
(The Affections of May), and American wunderkind Adriano
Shaplin (Pugilist Specialist). Also, back for a second
run is Judith Thompson's electric polemic The Pyramids (or How I Got Fired from the Dairy
Queen and Ended Up in Iraq, by Pte. Lynndie England), starring
Waneta Storms.
Plus, expect a special guest visit by the late, and truly great American
playwright, Arthur Miller, who once said "art has always been the revenge
of the human spirit upon the short-sighted."
For more information, please visit www.thewreckingball.ca
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