Rock ’n’ roll
philosophy

>> Socrates is a bluesman in Patrick Costello’s
The Ballad of the Young Offender

MUSIC LOVER: Costello

by AMY BARRATT

Socrates was a rock ’n’ roller. While Bill and Ted may have intimated as much in the context of their Excellent Adventure, the theory promises to be considerably fleshed out in The Ballad of the Young Offender, a new solo play by Patrick Costello.

“I thought there was an interesting correlation between Socrates being tried for impiety and corruption of youth, because that’s exactly the charge that was made against rock and roll in the ’50s,” says the actor who is known locally for his work with Sabooge Theatre and the Mecca-winning SideMart Theatrical Grocery.

Ballad, which is his first solo writing and performing project, is one piece of SideMart’s latest project, an evening of theatre and music at Théâtre Ste-Catherine they’re calling The Apartment Plays (Feb. 26–March 1).

This company has a deep affinity for site-specific theatre (last fall they did Morris Panych’s The Dishwashers in the basement of a real bar) and they’ve achieved it again here by performing the plays not on the stage but in the apartment upstairs (seating capacity 30). Graham Cuthbertson, another SideMart regular, is contributing his solo piece, titled Buddy, and the evening will wind up back down in the theatre with performances by different local bands.

“I’m a lifelong lover of music,” says Costello, “and I was interested in mining that 20th century pop/rock tradition for its myths.”

While trying to come up with a backdrop for his musings about myth, Costello stumbled across Plato’s Apology, which is the student’s attempt to preserve the argument made by his teacher in his own defense. The actor, who also plays music, couldn’t help thinking that the ideas of these old Greek philosophers were, as he puts it, “rock and roll.”

“They espouse ideas that shake things up.

“Rock and roll has always been a youth culture,” says Costello, “so when I found out Socrates was 71 years old at his trial, I wasn’t sure that worked. But Plato attended the trial and he was 28, which is the age I’ll be turning soon.”

That’s when things started coming together. He created an old bluesman named Socrates St. You, who is mentor to a young musician named Johnny Hyacinth. The bluesman, known to his friends as Sonny, is on trial and all around him people are telling him that to speak out is undemocratic. (Costello doesn’t care if theatergoers get the ancient Greek connection. He wouldn’t mind, on the other hand, if they made connections between his story and current events.)

Costello, alone on stage but for an old reel-to-reel tape recorder, will portray numerous characters. Given the subject matter, music will figure prominently. Costello, who currently moonlights with the band Mixylodian, will play a little guitar, a little harmonica, and there will be recorded music as well.

The musical portion of the evening, which gets underway around 10 p.m., is an unabashed attempt to coax people who go to live music events into giving live theatre a try. The lineup of bands hadn’t been confirmed by deadline.

The Apartment Plays,
February 26–March 1 , 8 p.m.
Live bands at 10 p.m.
Tickets $15 for the evening,
available at (514) 284-3939 or
theatrestecatherine.com.
Tickets for bands only, $6.