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THE VANCOUVER COURIER WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2012
arts&entertainment
Are writers geniuses or thieves? PROVOCATIVE ETERNAL HYDRA LAUNCHES LITERARY DETECTIVE STORY
E
ternal Hydra, written by Toronto writer Anton Piatigorsky, is an invigorating, challenging play that wrestles with the concept of authorship and appropriation of voice. A Touchstone Theatre production outstandingly directed by Katrina Dunn, its opening night audience buzzed with excitement, hung around the theatre afterwards and, even later, stood discussing it outside in the rain. Is it true that writers, as claimed by character Gordias Carbuncle (John Murphy), a self-loathing Irish-Jewish novelist living in Paris in the 1930s, simply steal other people’s stories — or do they give a voice to the otherwise voiceless? Vivian Ezra (Laara Sadiq) is a
Andrew Wheeler and John Murphy star in Eternal Hydra. scholar who for six years has been so deeply involved in an unpublished 1,000-page manuscript by now-
deceased Carbuncle that she has “materialized” him; she hears him, sees him, adores him. The discov-
ery of his diary by publisher Randall Wellington Jr. (Andrew Wheeler), however, reveals Carbuncle was a terrible drunk who mean-spiritedly denied his research assistant — who was in love with him — credit for her work. Worse, he actually bought one of the 100 stories in his Eternal Hydra manuscript from impoverished African-American writer Selma Thomas (Cherissa Richards) and passed it off as his own. Was this any more fraudulent, Carbuncle argues, than Shakespeare borrowing virtually all of his plots from other sources? There are many layers in this play that shifts back and forth from the office of publisher Randall Wellington Jr., back to the ’30s and even further back to 1866, and the story of Selma Thomas’s grandmother, a
freed slave turned shoemaker. David Roberts’ set, lit by Adrian Muir, is handsome and efficient: a wood-panelled rear wall with windows and doors that open and close to set various locales: Paris, the publisher’s office, the shoemaker’s shop. This is a provocative play with all 11 roles superbly performed by Murphy, Sadiq, Wheeler and Richards; it shakes to the very roots our ideas about writers: geniuses or thieves? —review by Jo Ledingham joled@telus.net
ETERNAL HYDRA
At Studio 16 until Nov. 11 1545 West Seventh Ave. Tickets 604-689-0926 firehallartscentre
Beauty of cosmic proportions orbits Lepage’s Moon a goldfish, swims round and endlessly round like an astronaut lost forever, like our planet spinning through space. This theatrical magic carpet ride explores the relationship between Philippe, his flamboyant, recently deceased mother and his estranged brother André. Amazingly, Lepage fuses this story with the American/ Russian race to dominate space. Lepage is famous for his spectacular staging and the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, a
state-of-the-art venue, is perfectly equipped to do justice to Lepage’s technical and aesthetic genius. But it’s not all just smoke and mirrors — although the most stunning visual is a mirror stretching from stage left to stage right. Yves Jacques — playing both Philippe and André as well as their mother — draws us into the sibling rivalry that extends right into adulthood and Philippe’s painful recognition that he was not his mother’s favourite. Jacques, a soft-spoken per-
former (who, on occasion, was difficult to hear) paints a clear picture of brash, self-important weatherman André and uncertain, gay, cultural philosophy student Philippe. The show has changed considerably since 2002 when it was presented at The Playhouse: it’s more playful and yet more emotionally involving. What remains the same is the last staggeringly beautiful scene underscored by Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata: Philippe tumbling weightlessly and joyfully through
Children are poor in this city. Do something about it. Give. Volunteer. Act. uwlm.ca/prevent
space. Don’t even breathe; this is beauty of cosmic proportions. Lepage replaces Jacques in the role from Nov. 6 to 10. —review by Jo Ledingham joled@telus.net
THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON At Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, SFU Woodward’s until Nov. 10 Tickets: 604-251-1363 thecultch.com
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hen is an ironing board not an ironing board? When it’s an exercise bicycle, moped, hospital gurney, weight-training contraption — in short, whatever performer Yves Jacques and Québecois creator/director Robert Lepage want us to believe it is. The window in a washing machine becomes the porthole in a spaceship through which a tiny cosmonaut tumbles into the laundromat. But the porthole is also a fishbowl in which Beethoven,
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