Tony’s an ass.
I give him clean water and new seed, while he squawks and hisses at me. I said some less than pleasant things back, but he deserved it. (*@#()& bird!
I’m in my mother’s housecoat, in slippers, having just ate too much and am now watching the Germany vs. Australia soccer game. Germany just scored. The stadium is going insane. Constant humming. I guess humming is better than hissing. Hear that Tony! (*#*)(*@(# bird.
So on a Sunday afternoon, or should I say morning (not noon yet), I’m reliving the events of Friday June 11, 2010. (FYI: Germany just got a yellow card.)
Rewind to 5:45pm. I’m at Main and 2nd. Just left a meeting and have time to kill. The play I'm about to see, Herr Beckmann’s People, starts at 8pm in Granville Island. I have next to no cash, no patience and decide to walk along the seawall to the Festival House.
It’s a warm day. I’m wearing my dress-gone pyjama-gone dress again, my new-found lens-scratched sunglasses from Victoria and my velvet blazer from Montreal. I’m not cold but figure come 10pm I’ll be freezing. Great.
I walk and stare at everyone and everything along the way. It’s beautiful: the water, the sailboats, the mountains. I can’t help but think who can afford all this affluence. This city is ridiculously expensive. I sigh and try to take in the lovely scenery. Free life lesson.
The seawall winds through parks, condos, and docks. A couple of homeless people are sitting on a bench. Can’t help but think that’s where I would be too if I didn’t have anywhere to go. Might as well enjoy the view.
I walk by the docks, closed off by a rather impressive gate. Look at how I would go about getting to the other side without falling in the water. Figure I could do it but getting back would be the hard part. Laugh at the thought of breaking in. My mind...
Fast forward Sunday: Germany just missed a pretty good goal opportunity. The player looks mad. Shucks.
Arrive in Granville Island. Have five bucks I could go without and don’t know what to do. Almost an hour until showtime. Call my friend Vince to let him know I’m here. He’s still in downtown Vancouver eating pizza. (Oh, Germany just scored.)
Go to a cafe and grab a piece of carrot cake. Figure if I’m bored, I should at least eat. The cake was delicious. Very moist.
Head to the theatre and grab my tickets and two programmes. Sit outside on the plaqued "smoker's bench" only to find out that 1) there is no such thing as a smoker’s bench in Vancouver 2) smokers are hated by all. I will refrain from saying what I really think. It's not nice. My mother will be impressed.
Take a look at the programme when I see this guy in a hat. Ask if he’s here to see the play. He’s dismissive but says yes. Further into the programme I see he is part of the set design crew. I find it hilarious how some people give off major attitude, as if they should be recognizable. Niche is niche. Enough said.
(Photo: The set)
I save two seats in the theatre and walk about. Return a few minutes later and see Vince has arrived. We’re in the fourth row to the back. We’re in director seats. I was drawn to them. Vince would rather seat in the last row but there are no seats left. The theatre sits about eighty or so.
(Photo: Me looking disheveled, with Sally Stubbs, the playwright, in the background.)
(Photo: Vince and moi.)
I take a peek at the programme again.
So here’s the low down. Herr Beckmann’s People is written by Sally Stubbs, directed by Katrina Dunn and dramaturged by Martin Kinch. I want to say dramatized, but he is referred to as a dramaturg. Huh? So I look it up. Dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. Some dramatists combine writing and dramaturgy when creating a drama. Others work with a specialist, called a dramaturg, to adapt a work for the stage. Herr Beckmann’s People is co-produced by the Playwright Centre (PTC) and Touchstone Theatre.
Set in Munich in 1969, the play is a tale of perception and forgiveness more so than art, war and the politics of culture. A daughter (Anna played by Dawn Petten), returns to Germany after some twenty years. She had run away after learning of her father’s (Anthony F. Ingram) acts of brutality as a former SS officer; she is arrogant, harsh, and ignorant and plays the victim. I secretly hate her. She lives in Canada. Her brother (Klaus played by Bill Marchant) is ill, an alcoholic, and later passes. But before he does, he advises Anna to hash out the past. She stays chez mama, and here is where the play starts to take shape.
The supportive cast (including grandmother played by Donna Carroll White), is pushed to the side, but not without merit. And Anna and her mother take centre stage. Herr Beckmann’s People is a piece on ambition, loss and forgiveness with war as its foe. The daughter is harsh, arrogant and ignorant. She perceives, misconstrues and is bitter. Bitter that her past is dark, and vile. And so is her mother made to be. Played by Christine Willes, Anna’s mother was a talented pianist who decides to stay put in Germany, despite her husband’s wishes to settle abroad. She stays for success, and in the end, so loses her family.
(Might I add here, I just finished writing the review only for my computer to freeze. Lost it all. Frustration...doesn’t cut it.)
It is a tale told many times, and yet it is full, warm, harsh and heavy. Here are two women whose stories remain untold. And so, through dialogue, the play is the story. It is told and retold through the eyes of an injured daughter and a tried mother. And here is where the puzzle takes form. Missing pieces surface. The past rewrites itself. Or better yet, the present becomes light, or should I say, lighter.
I think of my own family, and how time makes the decisions of others more palatable. And how hard it is to really listen, and to see the glass as both full and half empty. I am drawn to the accusations and the explanations. At times the theatre turns into film. The realism is astonishing. Christine Willes and Dawn Petten are marvellous. Their interaction is genuine, it is recognizable, it is full of truth. But the truth lies not in the period piece, the ailing son or abandoned father, or the culture shock or shift. It lies within the human moments of hate, anger and acceptance. That what was is not. And what is simply is.
Odd at times is the accent shift. The mother speaks English with an accent and then without. I figure it is her speaking English and then German...but it is not reflected in Anna's speech. Having to decipher it all takes me away from the moment.
The play ends and the actors take stage and bow. I want to stand up but decide not to. I congratulate the cast and the playwright, Sally Stubbs. No egos.
Platters of appetizers are flying about. Ah, the joy of premieres. I grab a handful of cherry tomatoes and snap peas. Briefly chat and head off with Vince to Broadway Street, where we catch the bus.
We make a stop at McDonald's, where I am treated to a chocolate sundae. I custom order my dessert: chocolate, ice cream, chocolate, ice cream and lastly chocolate. It's all about layering. A guy starts playing the diggerie doo while waiting in line. The folk who hang out at McDee's at eleven. Not surprised but it's been a while since I've dined tres-fast.
We go our separate ways. Vince takes the skytrain home and me, I walk. My belly is full. Shouldn't have had the ice cream. Got to love Fridays.
(Germany won 4-0.)
Herr Beckmann's People is on until June 19th. Check it out at the Playwright Centre (PTC) Studio in the Festival House (1398 Cartwright Street), Granville Island.
Buy tickets at: http://www.touchstonetheatre.com/productions/herr-beckmanns-people/
@touchstoneinvan
@rebeccacoleman
Press Release:
Playwrights Theatre Centre and Touchstone Theatre première
Peace Play Award-Winner Herr Beckmann’s People as part of Flying Start
VANCOUVER, BC: Two of Vancouver’s most respected new play organizations are hosting the World Première of local playwright Sally Stubbs’ new script: Herr Beckmann’s People. Art, war and the politics of culture collide in this poetic and moving account of a family’s legacy of beauty and brutality. Sally’s play is the latest instalment of Flying Start, a partnership of Playwrights Theatre Centre and Touchstone Theatre, giving a stage to new professional playwrights, and the final production of Touchstone’s MADE IN BC season.
Herr Beckmann’s People runs June 10-19 at the PTC Studio at Festival House on Granville Island. The play follows Anna, who, returning to the city she ran from decades ago, forces her family to answer to tough questions about their past. While her mother plays a private concert, history unravels and she is confronted with a moral dilemma of her own.
Touchstone and PTC developed Flying Start as a direct response to the lack of opportunities for upcoming playwrights to get their work on stage. The program offers a year of development support, culminating in a small-scale but fully professional production, to a promising script by a playwright who has not yet been professionally produced. The intent is to introduce Vancouver audiences to the freshest voices in local playwriting, and offer the writer the sterling lessons that only a production can provide.
Sally Stubbs is an award-winning playwright, a teacher-director, and a performer who loves to clown. She has just completed a graduate degree in writing at the University of Victoria. Her scripts include Wreckage (Scirocco Drama), Faroland, Centurions, Eyes. Two, She’ll To The Wars, Home Movies and Spinning You Home, which she has begun to adapt as a novel for young adults. Herr Beckmann’s People, even prior to its first production, has been selected for a showcase at the 8th International Women’s Playwriting Conference in Mumbai, India, and is the winner of the third annual Canadian Peace Play Competition.
The première production of Herr Beckmann’s People is directed by Touchstone’s Artistic Director Katrina Dunn, with dramaturgy by PTC’s Executive Director Martin Kinch. The cast features some of Vancouver’s finest actors: Anthony F. Ingram, Bill Marchant, Donna Carroll White and Christine Willes, led by Touchstone favorite Dawn Petten in the lead role. Designers include Christopher David Gauthier on set, Adrian Muir on lights, Farnaz Khaki-Sadigh on costumes and Jeff McMahan on sound.
The show opens Friday, June 11 at 8 pm, and runs nightly (except Sunday and Monday nights) through until June 19. A Free Preview performance, sponsored by RBC Foundation, is on June 10 at 8pm. Saturday matinees are June 12 and 19 at 2 pm. On Sunday, June 13 the matinee is at 4 pm, followed by a chat with the Dramaturg and Director. After the 8pm performance on Tuesday June 15, there will be an audience talkback with the playwright in attendance
Tickets are $22 for adults and $18 for seniors and students, except for the June 12 matinee, which is two-for-one (all tickets $11).
Tickets are available through Tickets Tonight or by calling 604-684-2787.
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