MONTREAL — The English-language world premiere of Oooo! a poignant comedy about the lives of a group of clowns in Nazi Germany takes place at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts at the Saidye Sept. 13 to 21.
Graham Cuthbertson, left, Patrick Costello, Sarah Yaffe, Andrew Shaver and Trent Pardy of SideMart Theatrical Grocery are preparing for the English-language premiere of /Oooo!/ at the Segal this month. [Jim Verburg photo]
Written originally in Catalan by Spanish playwright Gerard Vàzquez, Oooo! has been translated by Elisabet Ràfols and Michael Bantjes and will be presented by the Segal’s resident company SideMart Theatrical Grocery in The Studio, the centre’s second performance space, under the direction of Andrew Shaver.
The play focuses on the real-life Catalonian Charlie Rivel, the most sensitive of the clowns, who was forced to perform for Hitler, raising such questions as: Can art be guileless? Does it have to submit to power? Can an artist remain apolitical in the midst of political chaos?
Rivel is played by Alain Goulem, who has appeared in CBC’s The Tournament and 18 to Life.
One year ago, Playwrights Workshop Montreal staged an English reading of Oooo! which Vàzquez wrote in 2005. The play was also produced as a film last year under the title The Clown and the Führer.
Goulem, who read Rivel’s part, was so impressed by the script and taken with his character, that he approached Shaver to direct a full staging of the play. They secured the rights to the English translation and, with a few revisions of their own, have put their signature on an innovative piece of theatre.
This is how Vàzquez describes Oooo!: “The strong contrast between the guileless figure of a clown and the ambiance of war and barbarity of the Nazi regime offers on the stage a potent and moving way to reflect about the condition and position of the artist (and of anybody else) in front of the most frightening realities that the human being is capable of producing at any time in history.”
Joining Goulem in the cast are two of SideMart’s core members, Patrick Costello and Graham Cuthbertson, as well as Tobias Goulem and Jesse Todd. Shaver and Sarah Yaffe share the credit for set design (Yaffe is also in charge of lighting) and Jesse Peter Ash is taking care of the costumes and sound.