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STAGE CARNAGE: THE ARMENIAN AND RWANDAN GENOCIDES ARE AT THE CENTRE OF THE COMPLEX AND COMPELLING STATE OF DENIAL
by NEIL BOYCE
Montreal Mirror
March 29 2012
Canada
It's a great opener. The first scene of Rahul Varma's new play for
Teesri Dunyi Theatre, State of Denial, is a funeral.
A cast of six take on multiple roles in a story that links Canada
and Turkey and spans nearly a century. Varma's text touches on
both the Armenian and Rwandan genocides, but the main focus is the
plight of women in armed conflicts, where as one character puts it,
"Our bodies became their battleground."
Odette (Helen Koya) is a documentary filmmaker and survivor of the
Rwandan genocide, now living in Canada. She's deep into a project
that's taken her to Turkey where she interviews Sahana (Rachelle
Glait), an elderly Turkish woman widely known for her work helping
Armenian survivors. As Sahana reveals to Odette her true past--that
she was a pregnant Armenian woman sheltered by a kind Muslim Turkish
family--the scene shifts back to when she was a girl with a different
name and religion.
In director Deborah Forde, Varma's found a sizzling talent to make
the difficult story understandable and bearable. Like many past
Teesri Dunyi productions, the play has an engaging, agitprop feel
that carries its audience along, and Varma's writing and pacing here
has never been sharper or more layered.
Sahana's dying wish is for Odette to find her missing daughter,
who was entrusted with a guardian to take her to Canada. When an
outraged Turkish diplomat hears about Odette's research, he demands,
"Why not talk about whites killing aboriginals?" All the Canadian
consular official accompanying her can do is counter lamely, "We're
all shackled to our histories."
The strong ensemble cast, which also features Davide Chiazzese,
Matthew Kabwe, Olivier Lamarche and Natalie Tannous (as the young
Sahana), show great range and unflinching commitment to the material.
The problem in producing a work on genocide is, once the lid of
horrors is pried open--mass rapes, killings and the smiling savagery
of the perpetrators--how do you keep from overwhelming and numbing the
audience? Varma and Forde accomplish it by focusing on human actions
and human motivation in scene after scene of compelling and complex
theatre. Towards the end, the wizened Sahana gives the story its coda,
"They killed my people because they hated them. I do not want to be
like them."
INTIMATE COSTUMES
With actors and directors hogging the limelight, no one seems to
bother with the people who make them look good--the design team. But
a new Centaur play, Intimate Apparel, is opening and Lynn Nottage's
story (set in New York City in 1905) is about a seamstress who makes
lingerie for hookers and high-class dames. So who better to talk to
than costumer Susana Vera, designer of the outfits for the show?
"I started selling doll clothes to my friends when I was eight,"
Vera laughs. Her career trajectory took her from studies in historic
costume making at Dalhousie, to a lengthy apprenticeship at Monument
National, to her current steady freelance work at theatres all over
the city.
"I got 30 books on the era, from corsets to drawers to silhouettes.
One of my books was The History of Underwear." Vera says. "It's
wonderful for us when the actors come into the dressing room, they
leave and they're a different person. It's beautiful to allow them
that transformation."
The show's directed by Micheline Chevrier, with Lucinda Davis and
Quincy Armorer in lead roles.
STATE OF DENIAL TO APRIL 1 AT MCCORD MUSEUM (690 SHERBROOKE W.).
TICKETS INFO: (514) 848-0238, TEESRIDUNIYA.COM.
INTIMATE APPAREL TO APRIL 29 AT CENTAUR (453 ST-FRANCOIS-XAVIER).
TICKETS INFO: (514) 288-3161, CENTAURTHEATRE.COM
Short URL: http://www.montrealmirror.com/wp/?p=30653
by NEIL BOYCE
Montreal Mirror
March 29 2012
Canada
It's a great opener. The first scene of Rahul Varma's new play for
Teesri Dunyi Theatre, State of Denial, is a funeral.
A cast of six take on multiple roles in a story that links Canada
and Turkey and spans nearly a century. Varma's text touches on
both the Armenian and Rwandan genocides, but the main focus is the
plight of women in armed conflicts, where as one character puts it,
"Our bodies became their battleground."
Odette (Helen Koya) is a documentary filmmaker and survivor of the
Rwandan genocide, now living in Canada. She's deep into a project
that's taken her to Turkey where she interviews Sahana (Rachelle
Glait), an elderly Turkish woman widely known for her work helping
Armenian survivors. As Sahana reveals to Odette her true past--that
she was a pregnant Armenian woman sheltered by a kind Muslim Turkish
family--the scene shifts back to when she was a girl with a different
name and religion.
In director Deborah Forde, Varma's found a sizzling talent to make
the difficult story understandable and bearable. Like many past
Teesri Dunyi productions, the play has an engaging, agitprop feel
that carries its audience along, and Varma's writing and pacing here
has never been sharper or more layered.
Sahana's dying wish is for Odette to find her missing daughter,
who was entrusted with a guardian to take her to Canada. When an
outraged Turkish diplomat hears about Odette's research, he demands,
"Why not talk about whites killing aboriginals?" All the Canadian
consular official accompanying her can do is counter lamely, "We're
all shackled to our histories."
The strong ensemble cast, which also features Davide Chiazzese,
Matthew Kabwe, Olivier Lamarche and Natalie Tannous (as the young
Sahana), show great range and unflinching commitment to the material.
The problem in producing a work on genocide is, once the lid of
horrors is pried open--mass rapes, killings and the smiling savagery
of the perpetrators--how do you keep from overwhelming and numbing the
audience? Varma and Forde accomplish it by focusing on human actions
and human motivation in scene after scene of compelling and complex
theatre. Towards the end, the wizened Sahana gives the story its coda,
"They killed my people because they hated them. I do not want to be
like them."
INTIMATE COSTUMES
With actors and directors hogging the limelight, no one seems to
bother with the people who make them look good--the design team. But
a new Centaur play, Intimate Apparel, is opening and Lynn Nottage's
story (set in New York City in 1905) is about a seamstress who makes
lingerie for hookers and high-class dames. So who better to talk to
than costumer Susana Vera, designer of the outfits for the show?
"I started selling doll clothes to my friends when I was eight,"
Vera laughs. Her career trajectory took her from studies in historic
costume making at Dalhousie, to a lengthy apprenticeship at Monument
National, to her current steady freelance work at theatres all over
the city.
"I got 30 books on the era, from corsets to drawers to silhouettes.
One of my books was The History of Underwear." Vera says. "It's
wonderful for us when the actors come into the dressing room, they
leave and they're a different person. It's beautiful to allow them
that transformation."
The show's directed by Micheline Chevrier, with Lucinda Davis and
Quincy Armorer in lead roles.
STATE OF DENIAL TO APRIL 1 AT MCCORD MUSEUM (690 SHERBROOKE W.).
TICKETS INFO: (514) 848-0238, TEESRIDUNIYA.COM.
INTIMATE APPAREL TO APRIL 29 AT CENTAUR (453 ST-FRANCOIS-XAVIER).
TICKETS INFO: (514) 288-3161, CENTAURTHEATRE.COM
Short URL: http://www.montrealmirror.com/wp/?p=30653