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At 56, Bard on the Beach founder Christopher Gaze is well within his rights to look ahead to those golden years on the horizon and make it his fast intent to shake all cares and business from his age, conferring them on younger strengths while he, unburthen'd, crawl toward death.
Instead, he's been busy memorizing an unbutchered version of that text, part of the monarch's opening message in King Lear. For the first time since his starring role in Bard's 1998 production of Richard III, Gaze is again at centre-stage in the big tent at Vanier Park.
"I've been very cautious in the last few years, not playing leading roles, mainly because my other responsibilities have risen so much," Gaze says. "Also, the Bard company is so filled now with excellent players, it seemed very opportunistic for me to play plum roles."
Yet while Gaze has enjoyed a cameo or two on the Bard stages, such as in last year's production of The Taming of the Shrew, bigger roles are never far from his mind. Even his 2006 appearance in the Arts Club's production of The School for Scandal and another in 2004 in a Playhouse production of Equus, one that netted Gaze a Jessie award, weren't enough to keep him from dreaming of bigger things.
"I've thoroughly enjoyed that, not having to carry the play," says Gaze, "but Jimmy [Lear director James Fagan Tait] turned to me and said, 'Well, how about you for the king?' I hadn't planted this, I hadn't arranged this, I'm not that Machiavellian. I asked to be given time to think about it -- then said yes."
Gaze says the role has resonated within him since he was 14, at boarding school and playing a gentleman attendant to Cordelia. He has since performed in King Lear numerous times in the U.K. and Canada, on radio and on stage.
"I've played the Fool, I've played Cornwall and Oswald and the gentleman, but I've never played Lear. Frankly, it's time."
Tait's unique style as a director (last season's Timon of Athens at Bard was a stand-out example of his ability to transform difficult works) will once again have him collaborating closely with musical director Joelysa Pankanea; Gaze laughs as he reveals that even the four-score king has a song to sing.
"I hope what people will enjoy is that they'll see and hear the play afresh. It won't be encumbered with massive sounds of storms, it'll be a very interior examination of what lies in Lear's head, especially in the storm scene. It's a very insightful and touching tale in the way Jimmy tells it and, whether this succeeds or fails, I have had the journey of a lifetime."
Gaze is equally enthusiastic about the other offerings at Bard on the Beach this year. When director David Mackay approached him with a new concept for a production of Twelfth Night, Gaze looked back to Dean Paul Gibson's successful 2002 version.
"It's always kind of scary approaching these plays again," says Gaze, "thinking how we can do it in a way that will reveal the play afresh."
Mackay is known in the theatre community for his deft touch with a video camera. For Gaze he edited a video of a time where Mackay felt Twelfth Night would find a fine fit -- 1920s New York, a sparkling city of classy flappers, hot jazz and bathtub gin in the era of silent-film comedians such as Buster Keaton.
"I immediately saw what a marvellous idea it was," Gaze says. "I could see the way the various characters of the time, the style, the aesthetics of those silent films and that music, could work. With all that Shakespeare provides, it's already a very musical play."
On Bard's smaller stage, Meg Roe directs The Tempest and Kim Collier leads a production of Titus Andronicus. While Collier has years of experience as a director and co-founder of Electric Company Theatre, this is Roe's first time as director.
"There's great excitement with her enthusiasm, her clarity and her preparedness," says Gaze. "Meg is an extremely forceful, bright and bossy girl -- she likes to be heard and put her point of view forward, strongly, which is a good thing."
Roe is already well-established as an award-winning actress and, with her partner Alessandro Juliani, a sound designer. Juliani has composed a "Tempest suite" for the production, and Gaze reveals that a string trio will perform live on stage at each performance.
"It's a novel thing, a beautiful thing and, by the way, extremely expensive. I don't say that to be vulgar, but money is being spent and is dripping off the stage."
Something else will be dripping off the stage as Collier directs what is perhaps Shakespeare's bloodiest work. Titus Andronicus is so strange and disturbing that it's rarely performed; Gaze is delighted his festival has grown so popular that it's able to present such oddities from the canon.
"Titus is a vile tale of revenge," he notes, "but it's endlessly fascinating to see the beast that lurks within us, whether we like it or not. Kim's the right person -- she's got all the potency and might of that play kicking in, she's really visual, with an extraordinary way of looking at work. It's a strong, physical production."
Sun Theatre Critic
pbirnie@png.canwest.com
TWELFTH NIGHT
When twins Sebastian and Viola are shipwrecked, disguise, mistaken identities and misplaced affections result in a delightful tangle of romance. Viola, masquerading as a man, falls for Duke Orsino but he is smitten with the beautiful but un-reciprocating Olivia. Olivia in turn falls for the disguised Viola. When Viola's look-alike brother suddenly appears, romantic confusion truly reigns. Meanwhile, Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, the maid Maria and clown Feste plan a hoax on the pompous steward, Malvolio.
THE STAGING: Set in New York in the 1920s in a stylized, romanticized homage to old Hollywood films.
KING LEAR
King Lear decides to split his kingdom between his three daughters, basing each one's portion on her declaration of love for him. Goneril and Regan offer adulation and lies and earn control of Lear's kingdom; Cordelia, who is honest, but unflattering, is disowned and bartered into a political marriage. Meanwhile, Gloucester's bastard son Edmund deceives him into rejecting his legitimate son Edgar. As this great tragedy of mistaken judgments unfolds, greed and lust for power result in cruelty, madness and death.
THE STAGING: Set in the near future when relations between England and France have faltered and international policy is as fragile as the mind of the aging monarch.
THE TEMPEST
Magic and intrigue are at the heart of this well-loved classic. Prospero, a magician and the exiled Duke of Milan, lives on an enchanted island with his daughter Miranda, the spirit Ariel, and the slave Caliban. Stranded there years ago by his usurping brother, Antonio, and Alonso, King of Naples, Prospero conjures up a storm that shipwrecks his old enemies on the island's shores. As Ariel and Prospero weave their magic, new alliances form, plots of murder brew, and romance blossoms between Miranda and Ferdinand, King Alonso's son.
THE STAGING: Set in the 17th century with a classical, Jacobean setting and original music performed live by a string quartet.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
In this bloody revenge drama, Titus returns victorious from battle with Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her lover Aaron, and her three sons as prisoners. When he kills Tamora's eldest son in a ritual sacrifice, the seeds of hatred take root. A chain of brutal plots and counterplots follow -- Titus's remaining sons are framed then murdered, his daughter is raped and mutilated, and he cuts off his own hand after a false promise to release his imprisoned sons. Eventually Titus reaps his own revenge in a clever, but horrific, twist of fortunes.
THE STAGING: With themes as current today as when Shakespeare wrote the play, Titus is set in a contemporary world.
bardonthebeach.org
BARD ON THE BEACH
- In the tents at Vanier Park, at the foot of Whyte Avenue.
- Tickets $18 to $33, go to bardonthebeach.org or call 604-739-0559.
- Twelfth Night: From tonight to Sept. 27. Directed by David Mackay, starring Lois Anderson as Viola, Todd Talbot as Duke Orsino, Melissa Poll as Olivia and David Marr as Sir Toby Belch.
- King Lear: June 11 to Sept. 26. Directed by James Fagan Tait, starring Christopher Gaze as Lear, Lois Anderson as Goneril, Tiffany Lyndall-Knight as Regan and Melissa Poll as Cordelia.
- The Tempest: June 26 to Sept. 20. Directed by Meg Roe, starring Allan Morgan as Prospero, Julie McIsaac as Miranda, Jennifer Lines as Ariel and Bob Frazer as Caliban.
- Titus Andronicus: July 9 to Sept. 19. Directed by Kim Collier, starring Russell Roberts as Titus, Jennifer Lines as Tamora, Bob Frazer as Lucius, Charles Christien Gallant as Demetrius and Kyle Rideout as Chiron.
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