by AMY BARRATT

It’s writer Jack London’s 130th birthday today and darned if that isn’t the call of the wild I hear coming from… Centaur Theatre? Okay, maybe not, but it is the ninth annual Wildside Festival, underway since Jan. 10 and continuing through Jan. 21.

It’s the one time of the year when the mainstream theatre opens its doors to little, independent companies, offering them $1,000 and 75 per cent of their box office take as well as—possibly the greatest gift—a free performance space. The idea is that Centaur subscribers will take advantage of the relatively low ticket prices to check out something a bit more adventurous, while independent theatre fans will become acquainted with the Centaur and consider going back for one of the regular shows.

If we’re honest, this year’s festival features a string of rather safe bets in that all five shows have been seen in Montreal before. Ariadne’s Thread and BoyGroove were both picked up from last summer’s Fringe, The Rape of Lucrece and The Envelope Plays both had runs at the Théâtre Ste-Catherine last year, and Fathom premiered at the New Classical Theatre Festival in 2004. Still, chances are even the most avid theatregoer missed one or two of these the first time around, so the Wildside is a welcome opportunity to catch up.

The Envelope Plays is one of the shows I regret missing in its original run, not only because I like to keep up with independent companies like Tightrope Theatre but because I have since heard it so highly praised. Writer-director Gavin Drummond has been visible as a producer and sometime director these past few years—now it seems that behind the scenes he has also been making himself into a playwright.

The Envelope Plays are four separate monologues for men, all of which feature some element of the fantastic.

“One man talks about meeting an 11-foot woman in a bar,” Drummond offers by way of example. The playwright, who has studied his craft with heavyweights like Judith Thompson and Tomson Highway, has heard his work called magic realism. While he appreciates the association with South American writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Drummond points out that “there is a grittier quality to my pieces.” He likes to call them “dark, urban fairy tales.”

All of the actors from the original production—George Spiridakis, David Pryde, Kent McQuaid and Martin Thibaudeau—are back for the remount. On the technical side, there’s a soundscape by Troy Slocum, lighting by Paul Chambers and set by Katka Hubacek.

The four monologues are set unambiguously in Montreal. Drummond says he doesn’t do this to pander to a local audience but simply because he lives here and wants to use the local landscape.

Drummond has two more plays in progress and hopes to produce at least one of them with Tightrope in 2006. In the meantime, take a darkly comic walk with him at the Wildside.

The Envelope Plays premieres at the Wildside Jan. 12 at 7 p.m., $10–$15, 288-3161 for the full schedule

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