Graduating class performances

ABOUT THE LIAR

Lelio returns to Venice after years spent away from home. He swiftly embarks on the double courtship of Doctor Balanzone's daughters, Rosaura and Beatrice. Each young woman has another suitor, Ottavio for Beatrice and the shy Florindo for Rosaura. With brilliant zeal, Lelio lies and deceives to take credit for Florindo's attempts to declare his love. Add in a few other parallel love affairs and the plot gets delightfully complex.

“Contrary to the play’s title, Lelio does not see himself as a liar at all but rather as an artist who creates stories, explains Tadeusz Bradecki. Of course, the people of Venice are tricked by Lelio, but they are also blessed by his arrival, which brings a real creative whimsy into their lives. "Idiot! These are not lies, but witty inventions produced by the fertility of my-ever ready and prolific brain,” declares Lelio at the end of Act 1.

“The choice of this play by Alisa Palmer, Artistic Director of the English section of NTS, is excellent in the sense that it doubly challenges the students. It allows them to discover a classical comical text from one of the great European masters, Carlo Goldoni, while introducing them to the tradition of commedia dell’arte, at the origin of many other modern forms of theatre", explains the director.

Tadeusz Bradecki also draws parallels between the play’s story and theatre in general, which to him is a form of deception. “By watching these young actors, the audience will be entertained and will experience the art of pretending, just like the people of Venice did with Lelio.” The director chose to set the play within two different time frames: today’s time frame shows a group of NTS students in Montreal, in 2014, getting ready and rehearsing to enter the second time frame, where the action occurs in Venice, in 1750. “I’m working with the concept of theatre within the theatre", explains Tadeusz Bradecki.

ABOUT TADEUSZ BRADECKI, DIRECTOR

Tadeusz Bradecki is a director, actor, playwright and teacher. A graduate of the State Theatre Academy in Krakow, Poland, where he is Associate Professor, Mr. Bradecki has directed over 80 productions worldwide. From 1990 to 1996, he was Artistic Director and General Director of the Stary Theatre in Krakow, and Artistic Director of the Slaski Theatre in Katowice, Poland, from 2007 to 2013. He was also Resident Director at both the Stary Theatre in Krakow and the National Theatre in Warsaw. In Canada, Tadeusz Bradecki frequently directs productions for the Shaw Festival, including the remount of his hit 2003 production of the Brecht/Weill musical Happy End. He also directed the more recent Shaw hit _Guys and Dolls. _

Mr. Bradecki has acted in many films, among others by K. Kieslowski, K. Zanussi, A. Wajda and S. Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. He was awarded the Leon Schiller Prize and the Golden Screen TV Award. In 1993, he was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France