Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Crow’s Theatre is thrilled to present the Castleton Massive production of Stars’ frontman Torquil Campbell’s highly anticipated return to the stage, True Crime, on stage April 4 – 15 at the Streetcar Crowsnest in the Guloein Theatre.
Clark Rockefeller was a real life conman of the highest order, now serving a near-life sentence in a California State prison. And iconic musician and provocateur Torquil Campbell wanted to try him on for size. Several years ago, he began to make a play about him. Torquil’s story about his strange relationship with, and uncanny impersonation of Clark Rockefeller, invites us to find the truth in the true crime genre, in a mind-twisting encounter with an artist obsessed with faking it.
Created by Torquil Campbell with Crow’s Theatre Artistic Director Chris Abraham in collaboration with Julian Brown, True Crime stars Campbell in a show that examines the life of notorious German conman Christian Gerhartsreiter. Arrested in 2008 for kidnapping his own daughter, Gerhartsreiter operated under many aliases including his ultimate final act, posing as an heir of the Rockefeller dynasty, Clark Rockefeller. In the play, Campbell recounts his obsession with Rockefeller, and Rockefeller’s seeming obsession with him.
As a young man, Torquil found himself fixated with true crime reality TV. After Rockefeller was arrested, Campbell began researching him after stumbling upon an article in Vanity Fair by Mark Seal – “The Man in the Rockefeller Suit” – which Seal would later expand and publish as a book.
Says Campbell, “When I saw the pictures of him I immediately noticed that we bore a resemblance to each other and I started to realize that a lot of what he had been trying to do for a long time was impersonate someone quite a lot like myself — he was trying to be an effete East Coast preppy WASP! We look alike, we wear the same kind of glasses, we have the same tastes in things… the similarities started to get eerie. And that got me wondering, "What would it be like if I tried to become this guy?" It all began from there.
“I also began contemplating what causes someone to cross the societal line of what people do and do not do. I'm just an ordinary person living an ordinary life and I could just go and kill someone. What would happen if I did? What invisible veil would I pierce, and what would be the consequences of that?" I think Rockefeller’s a monstrous person and I don't want him in my life. But there's a kind of fearlessness in walking through that veil that I find intriguing. There’s also a surreal artistry to the way Gerhartsreiter manipulated the truth and created all the worlds for himself. I think he just might be an artist, and that really frightens me.”
For Campbell, creating and starring in a stage play represents a return to his roots. Known across the country as a lead singer of the band Stars, Campbell in fact came to acting first, taking professional roles starting in childhood. His late father Douglas Campbell was a 50-year veteran of the Stratford Festival, his mother Moira and actress and director, his sister a long-time stage manager, and his wife Moya O’Connell is a highly regarded stage actress and company member at the Shaw Festival. For a time Campbell worked as a professional stage actor in New York in venues including the Lincoln Centre and The Public Theatre, and he starred in an off broadway production of “Shopping and F@#cking” by British playwright Mark Ravenhill with Philip Seymour Hoffman.
“When I first met Torquil, the first thing that struck me about him was the way he could spin a story and work a room,” comments Crow’s Artistic Director Chris Abraham. “When Torquil introduced me to the Rockefeller story and did his impersonation of the guy, I knew instantly that I wanted to get involved. There is a weird connection between Torquil and Clark. I encouraged him to begin a correspondence with Rockefeller and to deal with the real person not just what was written about him. I couldn’t have been more surprised by where things went from there. This is definitely one of the weirder art projects I’ve been involved with.”
True Crime will run April 4 – April 15 (Media night: April 6) at the Streetcar Crowsnest (345 Carlaw Avenue) in the Guloien Theatre. Shows are scheduled Monday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m with Saturday matinees at 2:00 p.m.
Tickets are now available for Crow’s 2016-2017 season with regular tickets starting at $20 and Frequent Flyer Passes starting at $120. Get online information and make ticket purchases at crowstheatre.com.
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Photo: Torquil Campbell. ©2017 Dahlia Katz.
2017-03-01
Toronto: Torquil Cambell stars as a notorious con man in "True Crime" April 4-15