Stage Door News
Stage Door News
What happens when a woman meets her husband’s mistress on Christmas Eve?
This is the question Strindberg asked in his 1889 play The Stronger and revisited by award-winning physical theatre company Theatre Rusticle in their original work The Stronger Variations.
The Stronger Variations distills Strindberg’s 20-minute play to create the foundation to this work. Set against the backdrop of the 1950s, five performers alternately play Wife and Mistress, bringing the audience on multiple journeys exposing the nature of betrayal, loyalty, love, friendship, anger, sadness and what it means to be a strong woman.
Who is the stronger? Who suffers more? And how does one find their inner strength? The concepts of loneliness, happiness, love and self- understanding are intertwined as both questions and possible answers, enacted by weaving movement, text, sound and design through the prism of Strindberg’s play. His text has been retained, re-configured and used as a springboard for the performers to develop new text alongside physical language. Variations may be about real women and real situations, but allows both performer and audience license to delve into the poetic places these questions and answers can lead to, and the complexity that may follow.
The Stronger Variations was first presented at the Toronto Fringe in 2005 and was hailed as one of the best shows of the year. An expanded version was staged at Harbourfront Centre the following year, garnering a Dora nomination for designer Michelle Ramsay.
“We all know something about betrayal. We have all been the betrayed and the betrayer. We’ve all felt our hearts race or break, felt ourselves pushed to edges or imagining impossible situations. We’ve all become obsessed, given up, fought, surrendered. We’ve all come face to face with our own perceived and actual weaknesses. The question of this project is not so much who is the stronger, but rather how do we find the strength to confront ourselves, to define ourselves on our own terms. Set against the backdrop of the holiday season and all the “supposed to be’s” of our lives, the women in this project find the gifts of their many colours and a new path for the future.” - Allyson McMackon, Director
The Stronger Variations builds Theatre Rusticle’s signature physical style driven by image, character and narrative. The form of this piece deepens an on-going preoccupation in their work ~ where the word and the body collide and the new theatrical poetry is forged.
“a brilliantly executed piece of theatre” –The National Post
“Theatre Rusticle makes for very compelling theatre” -The Globe and Mail
Theatre Rusticle The Stronger Variations
Featuring: Liza Balkan, Andrya Duff, Chala Hunter, Viv Moore & Lucy Rupert
Costume Design: Dylan Bobier
Set Design: Lindsay Anne Black
Lighting Design: Michelle Ramsay
Fight Direction: Simon Fon
Production Management: Charissa Wilcox
Stage Management: Sarah O’Brien
Conception and Direction: Allyson McMackon
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
12 Alexander Street, Toronto ON
November 27 - December 7th, 2014
Tuesday – Saturday at 8:00pm, Sunday at 2:30pm
Opening: November 27th, 2014
Tickets: $27 - $37, PWYC on Sundays
Call 416-975-8555 or visit http://buddiesinbadtimes.com/tickets/
2014-10-28
Toronto: Theatre Rusticle presents "The Stronger Variations" November 26-December 7