A look at sons, fathers, brothers

Parallel stories in Arthur Holden's Father Land explore what matters to men

By PAT DONNELLY, The GazetteMarch 13, 2010

Anyone who caught Arthur Holden's hilarious performance as a maniacal pill-popping journalist in David Sherman's The Daily Miracle last month, won't want to miss the Infinitheatre production of his first full-length play, Father Land, which just opened at Le Bain St. Michel.

In real life, Holden remains a very funny guy.

Or so I discovered this week when we chatted over morning coffee at the Westmount home he shares with his wife (and noted author) Claire Holden Rothman (The Heart Specialist), and their two sons, Sam and Jacob.

But he has his serious side, too. Father Land is about "the general dynamic of brothers, and fathers and sons," he said. "Which is that they know how to push each other's buttons. And Father Land is a play that turns, I think, dramatically on the capacity of brothers to get under each other's skin, to say the things that they know will bother and provoke each other, ultimately, to talk about the things that matter." Inspiration for the play derived from two unrelated incidents: the bloody showdown in Iraq that culminated in the death of Saddam Hussein's two sons and a grandson, and, later, Holden's own father's suicide.

First, the Hussein Alamo, which occurred on July 22, 2003.

"The story was inherently dramatic," Holden said. "Two men and a boy were trapped in a house and refused to come out. They preferred to fight and die. As soon as I heard that story it occurred to me that it would make a great play. But I didn't do anything about it for years. Then my own father died. And I realized that what spoke to me so much about the Hussein story wasn't so much the political drama of these Iraqi leaders but rather the story of sons and fathers." Dual inspirations meant a double-decker play. "I wrote Father Land as two overlapping stories," he said. "One of them happening in a Westmount house, much like this one, being resonated, in overlap, with the Hussein story." On the Westmount side, a conventional-living accountant tries to deal with the latest crisis involving his miscreant, drug- addicted brother. The accountant's 15-year-old son, who is writing an essay about Uday and Qusay Hussein, empathizes with his uncle.

Touching on the subject of fathers, for Holden, meant confronting the ghost of his own - former Westmount MNA Richard Holden. He was a party-switching politician who began as an independent, ran federally for the Conservatives, won a seat in the legislature as a member of the English-rights Equality Party in 1989, then crossed the floor to join the Parti Québécois three years later. A noted bon vivant who consorted with the likes of Mordecai Richler and Nick Auf der Maur, Holden senior was no longer enjoying life because of severe back pain when he jumped from his eighth floor balcony in September 2005, at the age of 74.

"He was a very colourful, dramatic, sometimes provocative man, who suffered terribly," Holden said of his father. "And I think that one of the things that emerges in this play is that men, as they get older, and as their fathers become old men, are troubled by their fathers' suffering. And it becomes something that they talk about." Father Land, Holden underlines, is mainly about men.

"You have two grown brothers, in both of the parallel stories," he explained. "It's always two plots moving forward simultaneously. And the adult brothers are at odds with each other over how to relate to the father who is somewhere else. We never see the aged father in either story. But he's a presence in their lives. As is the son of one of the brothers, a teenage boy. It's that profoundly male relationship of brothers and fathers and sons that drives the play." Holden makes a clear distinction between facing unbeatable odds and suicide.

"Suicide is not fighting against odds," he said. "It's surrendering to them. Which I understand. My father was in a terrible, terrible place when he finally took his life. That is the fundamental respect in which my play is not about my father. It's about men still having it in themselves to fight the odds, to think: 'I can find a way out of this.' " Holden enthuses about Father Land's three-man cast of Neil Napier, Howard Rosenstein and Dylan Gouze, all of whom play double roles.

What about his own acting career? His appearance in The Daily Miracle was startlingly good for someone who hadn't set foot on a stage for years. He has, however, worked steadily in voice-over, dubbing, television (Fries With That) and film (Aviator, Barney's Version). As a writer, up until now, he has stuck to film scripts.

"Actually, primarily my writing has been the translation and the adaptation of Québécois TV shows for English distribution," he clarified. "For instance, I translated the series Rumeurs, by Isabelle Langlois, which was on CBC." Other translation credits include Léolo and Scoop.

It was during his days as a law student at McGill that Holden first took up acting.

Now at 50, he's looking forward, once again, to a life in the theatre, as one of his sons studies business at McGill and the other political science at Concordia. Full circle. Fathers and sons.

Father Land, by Arthur Holden, continues until March 28 at Le Bain St. Michel, 5300 St. Dominique St. Tickets $20, or $15 (student/senior). 514-987-1774 or visit www.infinitheatre.com.

pdonnell@thegazette.canwest.com

Infinitheatre Presents Third premiere of the 2009-2010 Season

Infinithéâtre presents the world premiere of Arthur Holden’s FATHER LAND directed by Guy Sprung and playing at the Bain St-Michel, March 9 to 28.

Sunday morning in Westmount. Fifteen-year-old Eric Brook is writing a history essay about Uday and Qusay, the sons of Saddam Hussein. His father Joe, a successful accountant, is about to take Eric’s reformed drug-addict uncle Victor to see their elderly father at the seniors residence. It’s a quiet, uneventful day that turns suddenly menacing when Victor reveals that he owes money to a local mobster – money he doesn’t have – and the mobster is on his way over to collect. The irresistible force of Victor’s desperation confronts the immoveable object of Joe’s outrage as young Eric, excluded from the conflict by his father, finds himself drawn to the bright flame of his uncle’s recklessness. In the boy’s imagination his uncle and father become Uday and Qusay Hussein in the fateful aftermath of the American invasion: two men trapped in a sumptuous house as a mortal enemy approaches. Alternating between the Brook home and the Iraqi villa in which the Hussein brothers have taken refuge, Father Land advances toward twin resolutions: one decreed by history, both by loyalty shot through with spite. It is a story of the debt owed by sons to fathers, by fathers to sons, by blood to blood.

Father Land was chosen from nearly forty submissions by a jury of Kent Stetson (Order of Canada recipient and Governor General award-winning playwright), Emma Tibaldo (Artistic Director of Playwrights Workshop Montreal) and Carolyn Guillet (playwright, actor and Associate Artist at Infinithéâtre) as the winner of Infinithéâtre’s first Write-On-Q playwriting competition and received a public reading in The Pipeline in 2008. The audience was so involved in the play, the heated post-reading discussion threatened to go on longer than the play itself.

Arthur Holden is a Montréal native, currently residing in Westmount, who has worked as an actor and writer in this city since the 1980’s. Acting credits include Battlefield Quebec, a TV docudrama written and directed by Brian McKenna, and Four Minutes If You Bleed, a stage play by Alex Haber and Ned Cox, directed by Alain Goulem. Arthur’s latest submission to the Write-On-Q contest, Kennedy: The Musical was chosen as one of the top three of 2009 and received a public reading using Arthur’s original compositions in The Pipeline reading series last fall. Arthur garnered rave reviews for his character Marty in the recent Infinithéâtre smash hit, The Daily Miracle.

Dylan Gouze is the third John Abbott graduate to make their debut at Infnithéâtre this season. He is in good company with Howard Rosenstein, who is starring in his third show (and one reading) with Infinite this year. Neil Napier dives into the pool for the first time after making a splash in Centaur’s production of Death and the Maiden last fall.

Set and Costume Design by James Lavoie
Lighting Design by Sarah Yaffe
Sound Design by Keith Thomas
Stage Managed by Sarah-Marie Langlois

La Presse Review
Le Devoir Review
The Mirror Review
The Gazette Review
Le Quatrieme Review
The Concordian Review
McGill Tribune
The Chronicle

MONTREAL, January 2010 - Ever wonder what it’s like to work for a major daily newspaper? Former Gazette copy editor, David Sherman, offers a keyhole view of the newspaper industry with his play The Daily Miracle, directed by Guy Sprung and playing at the Bain St-Michel from January 26 to February 14, 2010.

“What has more dramatic possibilities than a room full of people under constant stress?” asks Sherman and the elements he combines in his petri dish create a virtual powder keg. While a winter storm threatens to shut down the city and the corporate big wigs meet behind closed doors across the hall to decide the fate of the newspaper, four copy editors hammer out tomorrow’s edition. It's just another night on the news desk, where the battle-scarred and overworked wrestle with fractured syntax and crushed ideals to get the next edition out. Tempers frayed from layoffs, cutbacks and corroded ambitions; it's a miracle they can get the paper out at all … a miracle that happens every day.

The genesis of The Daily Miracle was in 2004 while Sherman was still copy editor at the Gazette as well as playwright-in-residence at Centaur Theatre. The play sat on a shelf until one day when Sherman was screening films for the Gemini awards and met fellow juror, Guy Sprung. When Infinithéâtre initiated the Write-On-Q playwrighting competition last year, Sherman submitted his play and Infinithéâtre’s independent jury chose it as one of the top three. Its topical resonance was irresistible to Sprung, who couldn’t wait to announce its inclusion in the following season’s line-up.

The Daily Miracle is Sherman’s love song to the newspaper industry. "The men and women I worked with on the desk at The Gazette were almost all unsung heroes," Sherman says. "They worked their hearts out under what has become impossible conditions for what I believed was a noble cause. Getting the paper out, every night, no matter what. The reporters got the credit. The deskers went bald and crazy."

Sherman’s fascination with the industry was triggered at the tender age of 6 when his schoolteacher recommended the class read the newspaper to augment their reading skills. Magically, The Montreal Star arrived at his doorstep every afternoon. He would dash home from school to be the first to open those ungainly pages in search of new words and mythic tales of greed, corruption, courage and victory. By the time he was 17 he was a copy boy at that very same paper. A few years after graduating from Dawson College, Sherman worked at The Star as circulation manager but eventually quit to write freelance for both The Star and The Gazette and then took a job at the Sherbrooke Record. Over the years Sherman has been a music critic, feature writer, reporter and finally a copy editor working the desk at The Gazette.

As an added bonus for hard-core news junkies, Infinithéâtre is hosting a special event on Wednesday February 3. The Bain will open its doors at 6:30 PM for an early showing of The Daily Miracle at 7 PM. Directly following the performance, there will be a panel discussion with four of Montreal’s senior journalists: Alan Allnutt, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Gazette; Henry Aubin, author, historian, and columnist at The Gazette; Josée Boileau, editor-in-chief at Le Devoir and Françoise Guénette, free-lance journalist and reporter for Radio-Canada. It’s anticipated that the panel and audience will be working up quite a thirst so cocktails will be served at a post-discussion reception. To buy a ticket or for more information, call (514) 987 – 1774 or e-mail development@infinitheatre.com.

Arthur Holden, celebrated Montréal actor (most recently seen on History Television in September as General James Wolfe in Galafilm’s Battlefield Quebec), and writer (his play, Father Land, won the Write-On-Q competition last year and will round up Infinithéâtre’s season with a March production) is Marty, newly back on the job after a nervous breakdown and clearly headed down that road again. Ellen David, well known to Canadian audiences (Mambo Italiano, The Carpenter and In Piazza San Domenico) and who currently stars in the new CBC comedy series 18 to Life, plays Elizabeth, a dedicated professional trying to balance motherhood and an all-consuming career in a predominately male environment. Howard Rosenstein makes an about-turn from paedophilic clown in Infinithéâtre’s Rabbit Rabbit last fall to Benjamin, the womanizing night editor determined to get the paper out with a minimum of histrionics so he can hightail it to the nearest bar to drown his troubles. New kid on the block with dreams of television news anchor fame is Carrie, played by Sheena Gazé-Deslandes in her theatrical debut and veteran Québec actor Jean-Guy Bouchard is Roland, resident philosopher and fallen demi-God reduced to janitor.

Hot commodity, James Lavoie, designs the set and costumes and Eric Mongerson returns to Infinite as lighting designer with assistance from Mylène Choquette. Making his Infinithéâtre debut as sound designer is Julien St. Pierre and Kathryn Cleveland is two for two this season as stage manager with Michael Panich as her apprentice.

MONTREAL, October 2009 - Infinithéâtre opens its 2009 – 2010 season with Rabbit Rabbit, a world premiere from National Theatre School (NTS) playwriting student, Amy Lee Lavoie, playing at the Bain St-Michel from November 12 to 22, with previews November 10th and 11th.

What do a paedophilic clown and a naïve prostitute have in common? Writing a one-act play about them was Lavoie’s first NTS assignment when she drew these two characters out of a hat.

Larry is a paedophilic birthday clown who sees a twelve-year-old prostitute regularly to keep his proclivities under control. She’s not available this week so he’s stuck with Britney, a voluptuous teenage ‘pro’, head over heals in love with her pimp, Ace, who’s threatened to boot her out if she doesn’t start bringing in some serious cash. Larry has his sights set on a little girl coming to his next clown gig, so the pressure’s on; he knows what he’ll do if he doesn’t get relief. He needs someone who ‘knows the routine’. Britney has to make Larry a happy camper so she and Ace can live happily ever after. The dingy hotel room becomes a confessional where life secrets are shared and the spectre of loneliness is kept at bay, even if only for a little while.

“Pedophilia is a subject that’s treated very black and white. It’s wrong, it’s repugnant and that’s that; we don’t really give it more thought than that,” says Lavoie. “The play is not a validation or a condemnation of pedophilia. It’s meant to ask questions, provoke reflection, perhaps even empathy, as we peep at these two lost souls in a seedy little room, grappling with their desires and needs. I wanted to open a door into a taboo topic and leave it open, let it sit with people after they go home.”

Guy Sprung, Artistic Director of Inifnithéâtre, discovered Rabbit Rabbit through the Pam Dunn Write-On-Q! playwriting contest, initiated last year. The play was one of the three top choices made by an independent jury and as a result, was included in the 2009 Pipeline Reading Series. This past summer, Rabbit Rabbit was given a workshop production at SummerWorks at Toronto’s Factory Theatre Studio and later went on to receive a staged reading at the Canadian Stage Ideas and Creations Festival.

“Ms Lavoie writes with the economy, clarity and precision of a Pinter and the generation of brilliant ‘70’s British playwrights: Barker, Bond and Hare. Her understanding of human nature is astounding at this stage of her career. Rabbit Rabbit will have a long afterlife in the canon of Canadian Theatre.” Infinitheatre’s entire 2009-2010 is composed of plays that were entered in last years’ Pam Dunn Write-On-Q contest. “This is Infinithéâtre’s “raison-d’être”, says Sprung. “Québec is rich in talented resources; we want to discover and encourage these artists, build audiences for them and keep them here!”

John Abbott graduate (2007), Ashley Dunn is making her professional theatrical debut as the prostitute opposite 25-year theatre veteran Howard Rosenstein as the clown. Guy Sprung directs with Ariane Genet de Miomande providing costumes and set, David-Alexande Chabot creating the lighting design, Tai Timbers the soundscape and Kathryn Cleveland as Stage Manager.

November 19, 2009

No clowning around

Rabbit, Rabbit is a dark, profane and poetic

debut from Amy Lee Lavoie

CHILD’S PLAY: Rabbit, Rabbit

by NEIL BOYCE

It all happens in an empty swimming pool. Remember where you are in the venue with Amy Lee Lavoie’s play, Rabbit, Rabbit: the deep end.

Infinitheatre opens its season by premiering the first professional production of Lavoie’s work. And what a start to a career.

The company’s often awkward space in the former Bain St-Michel was never used to greater effect. Stark lighting on torn wallpaper and rows of cheap mirror tile dazzle the eye as we face a narrow stage at drain level. The actors are already in place, waiting.

The set is a combination bedroom/dressing room. On one side, a young girl in a tutu lounges lazily on the bed. On the other, in front of a make-up mirror, a greasy-looking clown adjusts the hula-hoop waist of his pants and affixes a red clown nose. He isn’t smiling. Scenes from the movie Galaxy Quest babble crazily from a little TV. We already know this won’t end well.

Under Guy Sprung’s bold direction and Lavoie’s stunning text, the atmosphere of creepy dread ramps up, mercilessly, from the opening moments.

Teen prostitute Britney (Ashley Dunn) and “Cosmo the clown” Larry (Howard Rosenstein) are negotiating how they’ll spend the hour ahead—and Cosmo is quite particular with the psycho-sexual scene he’s envisioning.

Britney’s a blabby and bubbly 16-year-old, an endless stream of enthusiasm coupled with a hypertrophied attention span. Impossibly happy, seemingly unaffected by the work, Britney loves trying out new words, inserting them into her speech wherever possible (she’s a self-described “noteworthy” giver of blowjobs, although, she “laments,” the work can be pretty disgusting).

Cosmo is a distracted, fidgety and vacant pedophile. Eaten alive by his addictions, he’s fixated on Isolde, a six-year-old he met at a children’s party. “I really need to get straight this week,” says Larry, but his regular client, 12-year old Sabrina, is booked for the night with a “fat-ass turkey fuck” toilet fetishist in the adjoining motel room.

Rosenstein’s Cosmo is a fascinating construct—he wears the clown outfit nonchalantly, as a businessman would a power suit: to impress and deceive. His voice goes from flat to Mickey Mouse to a frightful croak, depending on his needs.

As the story gathers speed and we dismantle the artifices of this deeply unhappy pair, the thought is, “Don’t let this be more tame Canadian theatre. Fucking don’t hold back.” They did not.

Dunn, also making her professional theatre debut, shows no fear in the role, willing to take Britney from her happy veneer to a point where she snaps, convulsing, her brain on overload as she shrieks out variations on “monkey cum motherfucker brain cum fucker!”

It’s difficult to do justice to Lavoie’s script without a stream of superlatives. She’s found the beauty and poetry in the profane. She’s created a fantastically grotesque and sordid world that remains, somehow, believable and human: a corrosive blast to nice, safe, small theatre.

Great work stirs up associations. Since Rabbit, Rabbit, scenes from Blue Velvet—with its fucked-up characters fixated on a Roy Orbison song—have returned with a special resonance:

A candy coloured clown they call the sandman

Tiptoes to my room every night

Just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper

“Go to sleep, everything is alright.”

RABBIT RABBIT TO NOV. 29 AT

BAIN ST-MICHEL (5300 ST-DOMINIQUE)

INFO: (514) 987-1774,

BOX-OFFICE@INFINITHEATRE.COM