Regard for the Bard

>> Paul Hopkins takes the reins as new artistic
director of Repercussion Theatre

by AMY BARRATT

We talked about his love of Shakespeare, and his difficulties with facial hair.

My interview with Paul Hopkins was what you’d call wide-ranging. But then, Hopkins has had a rather wide-ranging career in theatre, film and television, as an actor, producer and director. His latest challenge, and the reason for our chat, was his appointment as the new artistic director of Repercussion Theatre.

Still, I couldn’t resist asking him about the role for which—outside Montreal at least—he is probably best known: Michael “Mouse” Tolliver in Armistead Maupin’s More Tales of the City and Further Tales of the City. Set in the ’70s, the TV mini-series had the handsome, blue-eyed actor sporting big hair and a handlebar moustache, none of which was pasted on, making his everyday life during filming slightly embarrassing.

“Nobody was wearing a moustache at that time,” he says of shooting the series in the late ’90s. “[In the street], girls would look at me and then immediately look away.”

Taking the reins at Repercussion is a kind of homecoming for Hopkins, who performed with the Shakespeare-in-the-park company when he was fresh out of Concordia in the early ’90s. Even though he has always considered himself based in Montreal, his career has taken him all over, including a stint at the Stratford Festival and its classical training program, the Birmingham Conservatory.

He got wind a couple of years ago that Repercussion founding AD Cas Anvar was looking to move on, but his Stratford obligations made it impossible for Hopkins to apply at that time. But when he heard a few months ago that Anvar’s replacement, Kevin Orr, had resigned, Hopkins made his move, offering the board of directors a package they obviously couldn’t resist.

His plans for the company about to celebrate its 20th birthday are similar to Orr’s, with a few extra twists. He says they’ll definitely be going back to Shakespeare next summer, after this year’s (highly successful) Molière experiment.

“Everyone is really pleased with the way it worked doing the show in both languages,” he says, “so we’ll most likely do that again.”

He has a play in mind for next summer, which he might direct himself, but isn’t ready yet to announce what it will be. Looking at his theatre resume, which is heavy on the Bard’s works, there’s no reason to doubt this actor when he says “I love doing Shakespeare.

“Shakespeare is written to be heard, not read at your desk. And that’s what we do. We put a voice to those words, to those worlds that seem so distant.”

He sees Repercussion producing shows indoors during the winter months, and they just announced a new classical training program aimed at actors and non-actors alike.

Hopkins’ first “production” for the company will be a fundraising cabaret in late fall. This is something he did very successfully for several years for Santropol Roulant. At the moment, he’s thinking about a Shakespeare-themed evening that would blend scenes with musical numbers both from the period and from modern re-tellings of Shakespeare, such as West Side Story.

Meanwhile, Maupin recently published a new novel titled Michael Tolliver Lives. No word yet on a mini-series. Watch Hopkins’ upper lip for updates.