Centaur Theater goes green with A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction

Article content

When Baltimore playwright Miranda Rose Hall arrives from New York to attend the Canadian première of A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction, presented at Centaur Theater from April 26 to May 15, you can be pretty sure she’ll be offsetting the carbon footprint of her travels.

Article content

Previous productions of her one-person play, which sees a behind-the-scenes theatre-maker thrust into the limelight to talk about climate catastrophe, have certainly walked the walk as far as sustainable practices are concerned.

Or should that be pedaled the pedals? As the play’s latest director, Rose Plotek, explained over the phone, in one production “the lights were powered by people on bicycles throughout the show.” In another, “every ounce of emission that was generated by facilitating the show over Zoom was calculated and offset.”

Written in 2019, this urgent yet playful call to action was postponed by the pandemic before being picked up by renowned British director Katie Mitchell and French choreographer (and Festival TransAmériques favourite) Jérôme Bel as a perfect showcase for Sustainable Theatre?, their pioneering company. As with many theatre-makers, Mitchell and Bel found an opportunity in lockdown to rethink performance practices in accordance with the climate emergency as they launched the play on a European tour.

Article content

Although Centaur’s production is happening independently of the Sustainable Theatre? Ella’s project, Plotek and her team are also working to create an experience in which the play’s content matches greener practices.

“It’s very hard to imagine making any kind of performance or art work at this moment in time without a consciousness of what is happening in the natural world around us,” said Plotek.

Promising a “very immersive experience for our production,” Plotek enthuses not just about Warona Setshwaelo, who plays the existentially rattled Naomi, but also about the behind-the-scenes team, including costume designer Julie Fox, lighting designer Paul Chambers and sound designer Jesse Peter Ash. This is clearly not just a fulsome Academy Awards-style namecheck, but a reflection of the play’s content. With its central figure of a renegade dramaturge going wildly off-script, it is, as Setshwaelo told the Montreal Gazette, “a kind of ode to all the production people and all the creators who are not actors or directors or writers but who make shows possible.”

Article content

That meta twist in the play’s title is further compounded by the fact that Setshwaelo has added dramaturgy to a skill set that includes being an award-winning actor (for Small Mouth Sounds at the Segal) and mentorship leader for Black Theater Workshop and Imago Theatre. Before coming to Montreal in 2007, she was already a household name in her then-home country of Botswana, thanks to being one of the front-runners in the first season of Big Brother Africa.

It’s a delicious irony that, given all this experience, Setshwaelo is being called upon to portray a non-actor awkwardly adrift in a starring role — a sleight of hand she’s taking in stride.

“It’s like any other acting job, you know? All performances are supposed to be played like it’s the first time that character is living those things. Possibly this is a thinner knife edge to skate, but it’s still the same job.”

Article content

Thanks to that quirky framing device and Naomi’s appealing sense of humor, the show promises to be an entertaining take on a deadly serious subject. Still, might the prospect of sitting through an unflinching exploration of our own imminent extinction have some audience members feeling like endangered critters in the headlights?

“There’s this idea that if we talk about these things, we’re going to be plunged into despair or we will be overwhelmed,” admitted Setshwaelo. “But there are people who are living right now for whom these issues are already completely overwhelming. So either you close your eyes and let somebody else take it, or you open your eyes and try to figure out how to make it so none of us have to go through it.

Article content

“We’re at a time when we need to process these things. And that’s hard, but we have to do it. Like they say, the first step of everything is acceptance, right?”

And speaking of steps, if you want to enjoy the piece with a cleaner, greener conscience, maybe leave the car at home?

***

Also at the Centaur is From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea, playing April 30 and May 1. Presented by Geordie Theatre, it’s the story of a child born in a magical time when both sun and moon are in the sky . Adapted by Gabe Maharjan from the children’s book by Kai Cheng Thom, it’s a compassionate and imaginative exploration of identity and acceptance, aimed at audiences age seven and up.

***

Infinithéâtre ends its 2021-22 season with the English première of Marc-André Thibault’s Mazel Tov, at the Kin Experience gallery from April 29 to May 8. It’s a provocative, sometimes comedic drama about a wedding between a Jewish woman and a non-Jewish man that goes awry when the groom’s best friend makes what is perceived to be an anti-Semitic gesture.

Article content

In an email exchange with the Montreal Gazette, director Ellen David described the play as “a compelling and daring piece that (explores) its dark themes with bravado and humour.”

It’s a play “that exposes challenging situations about how far is too far in terms of our words and actions,” she said. “It seems even more timely now than five years ago (when it premiered in French at Théâtre Prospero), considering our social and political climate.

“For me, the play is a cautionary tale of cause and effect and how when we know better, we do better. I love the idea that this play can be a tool to open up dialogue around these sensitive issues, where art can be the conduct for good conversation.”

AT A GLANCE

A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction is presented from April 26 to May 15 at Centaur Theatre, 453 St-François-Xavier St. Tickets: $67, seniors $57, under-30s $38. Call 514-288-3161 or visit centaurtheatre.com.

From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea is presented April 30 and May 1 at Centaur Theatre. Tickets: $25, seniors and students $20, teens $17.50, children under 12 $15. Call 514-288-3161 or visit geordie.ca.

Mazel Tov is presented from April 29 to May 8 at Kin Experience, 397A Ste-Catherine St. W. Tickets: $30. Discounts available. Call 514-987-1774 or visit infinitheater.com.