One of Toronto’s favourite theatre trends right now is onstage partnering between an actor child and his or her actual, biological parent. It’s a way of playing out generational conflict in front of a live audience. Tarragon Theatre’s smash hit, A Brimful of Asha (on now in yet another remount), which united actor and director Ravi Jain with his mother Asha Jain, is one example. This year, as part of the Rhubarb Festival, Michael Rubenfeld took to the stage with his mother Mary Berchard in mothermothermothermother….
But Toronto is actually a bit late to the trend, as it turns out. German theatre collective She She Pop premiered their work She She Pop & Their Fathers: Testament in 2010. The performance piece fuses the famous tragedy King Lear with autobiographical elements, and it features the actors’ real fathers. At its opening Wednesday night at the Harbourfront Centre’s Enwave Theatre, as part of the World Stage season, Toronto got a first glimpse at this funny, quirky, and incredibly moving piece of theatre.
In King Lear, William Shakespeare examines the difficult position of a patriarch who must relinquish his power to the next generation. In the play, Lear’s ego skews his judgment, and the whole mess results in murder, madness, treachery, and tragedy. The four She She Pop performers think, rightly, that there must be a better way to handle the passing of a legacy from parent to child. In keeping with King Lear‘s five acts, She She Pop & Their Fathers: Testament is broken into various chapters. It switches from documentary-style scenes (like the entire cast reciting selected conversations that happened during rehearsals) to overtly theatrical moments (like an intricately choreographed storm sequence or a reconnection of parent and child through music).
The performers speak in German in front of projected English subtitles, so wordless moments are a welcome break for sore eyes. But the language barrier by no means dampens the emotional impact of the script. Actors Sebastian Bark, Fanni Halmburger, Mieke Matzke, and Lisa Lucassen not only have their dads join them on stage, they bring their intergenerational squabbles, too. A fought-over Lichtenstein print, a childless daughter, a son who chose a career in performance art over academia, and a father absent from someone’s childhood (and also from this show) are real issues facing these families. What’s more, it’s clear that it wasn’t the fathers’ choice to hash them out in front of audiences all over the world. As Mieke’s father makes clear very early on, he would rather sort out the passing of wealth through physics equations (which he then proceeds to do) than through emotional discourse. But as the play goes on, we better understand the dads (Manfred Matzke, Peter Halmburger, and Joachim Bark) as men. Inevitably, we draw comparisons to our own family life, with very powerful results. At Wednesday’s opening, when Fanni Halmburger recited the stages of caring for a dying father as Peter Halmburger quietly sang Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” underneath, their performances were accompanied by a chorus of sniffles from the audience.
This isn’t a melodrama overwrought with pain and sadness. It’s enjoyably playful, peculiar, and poignant—bold, creative theatre that breaks rules and crosses oceans. It’s just the type of performance that makes Harbourfront’s World Stage programming so exciting. It’s a shame the show closes on Saturday.