by AMY BARRATT

It’s a year of theatre-related centenaries. Montreal recently helped mark the 100th anniversary of Henrik Ibsen’s death with the Segal production of A Doll House. Now, we’re getting in on another worldwide celebration: it’s Samuel Beckett’s 100th birthday. Unfortunately the Irish playwright, who spent most of his adult life in France, is no longer with us. He died December 22, 1989, in Paris.

Gleams Theatre, a company hitherto based in Westmount, is coming downtown for the occasion. An evening of three short plays grouped under the title Beckett 100, opens tonight at the MainLine Theatre. Play, Rockaby and What Where feature nine local actors under the direction of Constantin Sokolov. The director emigrated to Montreal 12 years ago from his native Bulgaria, having also worked in Switzerland, Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The founder of Gleams is actress-composer Ira Sokolova, who starred in the company’s critically acclaimed The Guitar Woman.

Alert theatre junkies may recall that Gleams did an evening of short Beckett plays last year around this time. Rockaby, written in 1981, is the only play in the current line-up that was also in the earlier one. All three plays post-date the playwright’s most famous theatre works, Waiting for Godot and Endgame. What Where dates from 1983; Play is the earliest piece, dating from 1963.

Asked if the three short plays are absurdist, Sokolov says yes, they are, but then admits to not much liking that label. “Who can say what is realist or absurdist?” he asks rhetorically. “What I can say is that these are rarely produced masterpieces which are poetic and philosophical and which display a great, intelligent sense of humour. Many people think that Beckett is dark, but it’s not true. In every piece, there is light and humour.”

Thanks to the efforts of Gleams Theatre, playgoers will also get the chance to view a touring photo and text exhibit from Ireland, also titled Beckett 100, which will be on display in the MainLine foyer during the run.

Repercussion drums on

If all goes according to plan, Repercussion Theatre will announce today that Kevin Orr is their new artistic director. Cas Anvar, who founded the company in 1988 and has seen it through many phases, is stepping down to concentrate on other projects. Currently working on a film in California, he will not attend the press conference. Orr is already known to Repercussion’s audience as the director of the company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which played in local parks in 2004 and again last summer. The production marked a return to basics for the Shakespeare-in-the-Park company which had become quite dependent on light and sound equipment, elements which some said distanced the audience from the experience. Orr’s Dream was done using natural light and intimate staging. This summer, Repercussion will tour local parks with Much Ado About Nothing.

Well, last Friday’s “final deadline” came and went, and the arrondissement Plateau Mont Royal still hasn’t decided if the Fringe festival can stay. For years, the city has been imposing tighter and tighter restrictions on the use of the outdoor site, located in Parc des Amériques at Rachel and St-Laurent. In deference to the condo dwellers who now overlook the park on two sides, live music at the site has been severely curtailed. Now the arrondissement is gunning for the Fringe’s bread and butter: beer sales! E-mails from supporters have at least kept the file open. Go to the Fringe Web site to find out how you can help: www.montrealfringe.ca.

Beckett 100 April 13–16 at 8 p.m., Mainline Theatre (3997 St-Laurent), 934-0535

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