Calgary has been blessed to have two of “English-Canada’s” greatest puppet masters in its own backyard. While Ronnie Burkett has since moved to Toronto, The Old Trout Puppet Workshop is still based in Calgary. Alberta Theatre Projects has long been a supporter of both, and is debuting a partnership with the Trouts on their current show The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan running until April 11th.
“This is the second collaboration with The Old Trouts, the first was Pinocchio in 2004. We learned a lot from that collaboration, both companies were very proud of the result which is why we went ahead with a second collaboration,” explained director Vanessa Porteous. “The advantage is that together we can create something more beautiful than either company could have pulled off on our own. The expertise we have in the ATP shops has added a layer of detail to what you will see on stage that is amazing. The imagination of the Trouts brings something fresh and new to ATP. We have also got a local composer, George Fenwick, on board who has written 60 minutes of entirely new music for the show, written and recorded entirely with local players. It is an extraordinary score.”
After 500 years of ruminating on the spoils of his indulgent appetite for women, Don Juan’s ghost emerges to reveal his tale of how terrible and wonderful, painful and pleasurable, and ultimately full of contradictions love is.
“The play is about love and how it can lead you to hell. Don Juan has been condemned to hell for his romantic career, and returns to tell his story so that we can learn to avoid his past. He goes back into his memories of how he became a man who had 1000 lovers. He tells it to us as a narrator and brings us back through his life,” said Porteous.
The show is unique in blending human and animated elements together. Don Juan is played by a real person – Peter Balkwill – who interacts with silent puppets.
“This is a big experiment. The main character is played by a human and the rest are puppets in a more abstract sense than we usually use. For us, the idea of the hidden puppeteer has a lot of value, because there is an element to a puppet show that is a magic trick. That can help the audience invest their own imaginations into the little creatures as if they are real things and they should care,” explained The Old Trouts’ Judd Palmer. “It is also beautiful for us to put the puppeteer on stage to show we are all in this together, working to create something we can believe in. That is a joy of it in a way. The event on stage is a creation not just amongst those who made it, but those in the audience as well.”
There are a number of reasons to see the show, Palmer says.
”The theatrical effect of the thing, the way it looks and feels, is going to be something new, strange and wondrous. We were propelled by questions about how to make love work in this day and age, post sexual revolution, that are lurking under the surface for most people.”
That exploration is something that applies to everyone, says Porteous, including the LGBT community.
“Our hero is a polyamorist, and he is making a case for it in the show. That is pertinent to everyone, but because of peoples lifestyles everyone will have a different opinion. We wanted to pose the question, not answer it. It did seem really relevant and something nobody was talking about. As gay rights come along and people can marry and enter into a monogamous situation, I am sure there are a lot of people who are wondering about it all of a sudden. It didn’t used to be a legal option at all, now it is and you are faced with all those questions and all the moral judgments that go along with those questions. It is extremely complicated and interesting to be delving into this material,” she said.
“It is a play about love, and we all love. It is really about the tension between honesty in love relationships and lying. When you agree to be in a monogamous relationship, you are giving up certain things. The play addresses the question, is it true and right to be faithful forever, or are you betraying someone if you have an open relationship? What are the pains and costs of either model? When we started the show everyone was in love, and it was a very pertinent issue, so we wanted to do a play about the complexities and contradictions of love. Everyone is wondering how to live their lives happily in love.”
