Graduating class performances
ShareBefore Her Time
Three plays by Samuel Beckett
Directed by Jon Lachlan Stewart (Directing, 2014)
of performances
from April 22 to April 26, 2014
Tuesday April 22: 8 pm
Wednesday April 23: 8 pm
Thursday April 24: 8 pm
Friday April 25: 8 pm
Saturday April 26: 8 pm
Mainstage
3997, St. Laurent Blvd (corner Duluth)
Métro Mont-Royal / Bus 55
T. 514-849-3378
Ticket price: Free admission
To the general public: no reservations needed – on a first come, first served basis on the night of the show, depending on availability
The National Theatre School of Canada (NTS) is proud to present Before Her Time, a series of short plays by Samuel Beckett — Rockaby, Footfalls, and Not I. Directed by Jon Lachlan Stewart (Big Shot, The Genius Code), this project marks the end of his training in the Directing program. Before Her Time runs from April 22 to April 26, 2014, on the Mainstage of the MainLine Theatre.
“Beckett’s plays are now revered as heightened abstract representations. But they really are about actual people in [Beckett’s] life. The pieces are simpler and more basic than the complex masterpieces we now make them out to be,” explains Lachlan Stewart, who chose Rockaby, Footfalls, and Not I for the striking similarities between the three female characters at the centre of these unrelenting soliloquies about remembering and forgetting.
A self-described Francophile, Lachlan Stewart’s admiration for Beckett also lies in the playwright’s bilingualism. After graduating from the NTS, the Edmonton-born artist plans to stay in Montreal, where he has already established connections with both the English and French theatre communities. His one-man show Big Shot, which was well received at the Centaur Theatre’s Wildside Festival last January, is being translated into French at the request of the Quebec actor Paul Ahmarani; He plans to present the French version this summer in the series Les Chantiers -constructions artistiques at Le Carrefour international de théâtre de Québec 2014.
PLAY SYNOPSES
ROCKABY
A woman sits motionless in her old rocking chair as an invisible force rocks her away. A ghost of her own voice, her own other, winds her back through memory. Rockaby is a mysterious lull through and into death, sung by a woman for herself, who is confronted with the reality of a premature end.
FOOTFALLS
May walks. And the voice of her mother in the darkness behind her repeats a familiar matriarchal routine, asking to be cared for… sponged down… injected… and changed position again. In Footfalls, Beckett haunts the audience with an eerie relationship that seems to completely remove time and space all together. Footfalls exposes both the tender care and repeated suffering underlying this complex relationship of mother and daughter.
NOT I
A woman soon abandoned by her mother and father after birth lived mute, not speaking a word, for seventy years. Now, the mouth speaks, spews, pours out her story, uncontrollably and unwillingly until the end. Not I features a simple, shocking image: a single mouth, suspended eight feet above ground, speaking non-stop until whatever she’s finding can be found. A hallucinating theatre performance piece.
ROCKABY and FOOTFALLS are presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.
NOT I is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.
About Jon Lachlan Stewart, Director
Jon Lachlan Stewart is a director, playwright, and performer born in Edmonton, Alberta. He trained as an actor at Studio 58 in Vancouver. Jon’s work explores contemporary and current themes through the creation of new plays that incorporate the use of dance and physical theatre. Currently, his primary focus is on the creation of works that can unite French and English artistic communities across Canada.
Directing credits include Keeping Peace (Surreal SoReal Theatre / Azimuth), Guernica (Hidden Harlequin, best director Sterling nomination), as well as being artistic director of his company Surreal SoReal Theatre (2004-present) and various projects while studying at the National Theatre School. Playwriting credits include Little Room (nominated for two Edmonton Sterling Awards) Big Shot (nominated for two Sterling Awards and two Calgary Betty Mitchell Awards), The Gooble Portrait (Théâtre la Seizième; five Vancouver Jessie Awards), Dog (nominated for six Sterling Awards, including Best New Play, and winner of the Best Independent Production Award), and Edith Rex (current commission with Shadow Theatre). Acting credits include The Goat, or Who is Sylvia (Citadel Theatre), The Palace Grand (understudy, Electric Company), The Play About the Baby (Theatre Network), Whale Riding Weather (Zee Zee), Ecran Fumee, Flocons Pour Alicia (Théâtre la Seizième), Des fraises en janvier (LuniTheatre), and the Blue Light (Keyano), as well as many Surreal SoReal productions.
Cast
Deena Aziz
Georgina Beaty
Danette Mackay
Design / Production Team (main roles)
Evita Karasek (Set and Costume Design, 2012)
Set and Costume Design
Audrey-Anne Bouchard
Lighting Design
Nikita U
Sound Design
Jacynthe Lalonde (Production, 2012)
Production Manager and Technical Director
Crystal Laffoley (Production, 2013)
Stage Manager