Theatre Wakefield presents.... George Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Lion in MASK
November 21-30
Wakefield Community Centre, 38 chemin Riverside, Wakefield QC
Price: $25
November 21-30
Wakefield Community Centre, 38 chemin Riverside, Wakefield QC
Price: $25
Theatre Wakefield’s Androcles and the Lion by George Bernard Shaw opens November 21st at the Wakefield Community Centre. This comedy is based on Aesop's fable: A man befriends a lion by taking a thorn out of its paw. Later, he faces the lion in the Roman Colosseum. Shaw’s comic retelling satirizes intolerance as we watch his characters decide whether it’s worth dying to defend their values.
The production represents a unique direction for Theatre Wakefield. The play will be presented in mask, commedia dell’arte style. The director, Catherine Edwards, explained: “Shaw lampoons anyone who gets on a political or a religious bandwagon in this play. The characters are caricatures really, larger than life, and a lot of the action is Monty Python-esque. We wanted to heighten that by masking the characters in the commedia tradition.”
Theatre Wakefield got a Canadian Heritage grant that enabled it to hire master mask-maker Clelia Scala of Kingston to come and teach the cast to make their own masks. Theatre Wakefield also hired Attila Clemann, a graduate of the famed clown school École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, as a mask and movement coach for the production. Attila teaches in the Department of Theatre of Ottawa U.
Edwards: “Theatre Wakefield had never used masks before, so it’s been a learning experience for the whole community.” Theatre Wakefield offered workshops to both children and adults in the summer to start building skills. The opportunity to try acting in mask without committing to be in a production was a major draw. Fully half of the cast had never acted before but found the workshops so fun they couldn’t resist auditioning.
Paola De Rose, who plays the character of Spintho, a reprobate who converts to Christianity in order to obtain salvation on his deathbed said, “It attracted me right away. I’m fit and sporty, and I like creative pursuits. For the first time, I discovered something that could bring both things together“. Francis, who is 10, and took the children’s workshop in the summer, said, “Acting with a mask is a lot different than other plays because you can’t show expression with your face. You have to use body language.”
Androcles and the Lion continues Theatre Wakefield’s tradition of punching above its weight as community theatre. For over 20 years, it has played host to professional theatre companies as part of the TaDa festival, to hosting DocFest, to nurturing and presenting works by new playwrights, to traditional community theatre that opens doors for children and adults to learn performance skills.
Edwards concluded: “I’m really excited about this project. Shaw has a powerful message for our time. The Romans threw early Christians to the lions in the Colosseum for sport. As we look to mass deportations south of our border, and to on-going religious and ethnic persecution in the Middle East and Europe, can we say that we treat our minorities any better 2000 years later? Shaw’s clever satire shines 100 years after it was written, yanking the mask off the best and worst in human nature, as we struggle to live side by side with one another.”
Show Times:
Friday, Nov. 21, Saturday Nov. 22, Friday Nov. 28, Saturday Nov. 29 @ 7 p.m., and Sunday Nov. 30@ 2 p.m.
Place:
Wakefield Community Centre
38 Riverside Dr.
Tickets:
www.theatrewakefield.ca
https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/androcles-and-the-lion-by-george-bernard-shaw
For more information:
Cathy Edwards
Chair, Theatre Wakefield and
Director, Androcles and the Lion
(819) 456-2237
The production represents a unique direction for Theatre Wakefield. The play will be presented in mask, commedia dell’arte style. The director, Catherine Edwards, explained: “Shaw lampoons anyone who gets on a political or a religious bandwagon in this play. The characters are caricatures really, larger than life, and a lot of the action is Monty Python-esque. We wanted to heighten that by masking the characters in the commedia tradition.”
Theatre Wakefield got a Canadian Heritage grant that enabled it to hire master mask-maker Clelia Scala of Kingston to come and teach the cast to make their own masks. Theatre Wakefield also hired Attila Clemann, a graduate of the famed clown school École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, as a mask and movement coach for the production. Attila teaches in the Department of Theatre of Ottawa U.
Edwards: “Theatre Wakefield had never used masks before, so it’s been a learning experience for the whole community.” Theatre Wakefield offered workshops to both children and adults in the summer to start building skills. The opportunity to try acting in mask without committing to be in a production was a major draw. Fully half of the cast had never acted before but found the workshops so fun they couldn’t resist auditioning.
Paola De Rose, who plays the character of Spintho, a reprobate who converts to Christianity in order to obtain salvation on his deathbed said, “It attracted me right away. I’m fit and sporty, and I like creative pursuits. For the first time, I discovered something that could bring both things together“. Francis, who is 10, and took the children’s workshop in the summer, said, “Acting with a mask is a lot different than other plays because you can’t show expression with your face. You have to use body language.”
Androcles and the Lion continues Theatre Wakefield’s tradition of punching above its weight as community theatre. For over 20 years, it has played host to professional theatre companies as part of the TaDa festival, to hosting DocFest, to nurturing and presenting works by new playwrights, to traditional community theatre that opens doors for children and adults to learn performance skills.
Edwards concluded: “I’m really excited about this project. Shaw has a powerful message for our time. The Romans threw early Christians to the lions in the Colosseum for sport. As we look to mass deportations south of our border, and to on-going religious and ethnic persecution in the Middle East and Europe, can we say that we treat our minorities any better 2000 years later? Shaw’s clever satire shines 100 years after it was written, yanking the mask off the best and worst in human nature, as we struggle to live side by side with one another.”
Show Times:
Friday, Nov. 21, Saturday Nov. 22, Friday Nov. 28, Saturday Nov. 29 @ 7 p.m., and Sunday Nov. 30@ 2 p.m.
Place:
Wakefield Community Centre
38 Riverside Dr.
Tickets:
www.theatrewakefield.ca
https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/androcles-and-the-lion-by-george-bernard-shaw
For more information:
Cathy Edwards
Chair, Theatre Wakefield and
Director, Androcles and the Lion
(819) 456-2237
