(no subject)
http://www.poortomproductions.ca/
It's been over a week since I saw this play, The Anorak by Adam Kelly, and I've been wanting to post about it, but I've been thinking about it, letting it settle, and trying to decide what to say and what not to say. It's certainly a brilliant piece, and an important one. Moreover, I found it tragic, not because I feel sorry for the character, but because it's easy to write him off as a monster, and a lot harder to remember he was an ordinary person.
The play is a monologue, from the perspective of Marc Lepine, the gunman who murdered 14 women at Montreal's L'Ecole Polytechnique. He introduces the play by asking who will remember their names, then explains that his father was Muslim, and the Islamic faith teaches that if you commit suicide, you're not allowed a life or a death. He then asks the women (seated on one side of the theatre, with the men on the other) what they want to know, and allows anyone who doesn't like it to exit.
Adam Kelly grew up in Montreal, on the street where Lepine lived, and the play balances a deeply personal story with a broader social commentary. Through the story, we are allowed glimpses of Lepine's life, meticulously researched, and embellished by some of Kelly's experiences. What struck me was how evident the divide is in Quebec, between French and English, the economic classes, religious divides, and especially the gender divide. Although the presentation is simple--a single spotlight on a guy talking, no props, no scenery, just a guy and what he has to say--the text is rich and complex. And it doesn't answer any questions, simply presents the story of this guy, this one guy who no one ever would have noticed except for the fact of his actions, one terrible day. That one guy. The sickening part of it is how much like anyone he was, he liked Rambo movies and got bored in school and fell for girls who weren't interested.
It would be easy to begin and end with "I liked it," or to write a thesis on the play, which, I think, is why it's stirred up so much public interest.
In other news...Oh ye gawds.
http://www.slate.com/id/2177969/nav/navoa/
It's been over a week since I saw this play, The Anorak by Adam Kelly, and I've been wanting to post about it, but I've been thinking about it, letting it settle, and trying to decide what to say and what not to say. It's certainly a brilliant piece, and an important one. Moreover, I found it tragic, not because I feel sorry for the character, but because it's easy to write him off as a monster, and a lot harder to remember he was an ordinary person.
The play is a monologue, from the perspective of Marc Lepine, the gunman who murdered 14 women at Montreal's L'Ecole Polytechnique. He introduces the play by asking who will remember their names, then explains that his father was Muslim, and the Islamic faith teaches that if you commit suicide, you're not allowed a life or a death. He then asks the women (seated on one side of the theatre, with the men on the other) what they want to know, and allows anyone who doesn't like it to exit.
Adam Kelly grew up in Montreal, on the street where Lepine lived, and the play balances a deeply personal story with a broader social commentary. Through the story, we are allowed glimpses of Lepine's life, meticulously researched, and embellished by some of Kelly's experiences. What struck me was how evident the divide is in Quebec, between French and English, the economic classes, religious divides, and especially the gender divide. Although the presentation is simple--a single spotlight on a guy talking, no props, no scenery, just a guy and what he has to say--the text is rich and complex. And it doesn't answer any questions, simply presents the story of this guy, this one guy who no one ever would have noticed except for the fact of his actions, one terrible day. That one guy. The sickening part of it is how much like anyone he was, he liked Rambo movies and got bored in school and fell for girls who weren't interested.
It would be easy to begin and end with "I liked it," or to write a thesis on the play, which, I think, is why it's stirred up so much public interest.
In other news...Oh ye gawds.
http://www.slate.com/id/2177969/nav/navoa/