From darkness to light

Actor and writer Adam Kelly moves
from tragedy to comedy and opens up
his love life for interpretation

NO SECRETS ALLOWED: Kelly

by NEIL BOYCE

It was a play about a real-life tragedy that put actor and writer Adam Kelly on the map.

The Anorak, Kelly’s solo show about the Polytechnique massacre—told from the afterlife, post-suicide perspective of killer Marc Lepine—raised a shitstorm of controversy soon after its 2005 appearance.

And though the work polarized a few critics, it was soon on the Best Of lists for every paper in the city. It won a Montreal English Critics Circle Award, got translated into French, and was commissioned by the CBC for a national radio documentary.

After next year, the 20th anniversary of the Polytechnique shootings, Kelly has no plans to continue the work. “That’ll be behind me,” he says—but not before the opening of the big budget Quebec feature Polytechnique, the fruit of a collaboration with director Denis Villeneuve slated to open in 2009.

The unrelenting darkness of The Anorak led Kelly to seek lighter fare—thus, the Dancing Cock Brothers sketch troupe was born. “After doing The Anorak,” Kelly says, “I needed to do comedy. No bullshit, just straight, nasty comedy that makes me laugh.” They continue performing with sketches like Fuck the Homeless, a Bollywood take on David Mamet called Garry Garry, Ross Ross, and their recent sentimental Yuletide fest, ‘Twas the Cock Before Christmas.

Returning to Montreal last May after a stay in New York, and faced with the same problem of every actor wanting to do English theatre in Montreal—namely the lack of places to perform—Kelly and friends’ answer was to open their own. Kelly hooked up with like-minded actors and writers to form Theatre 314, a new independent venue on des Pins Avenue that serves as an all-in-one theatre, acting school and living space.

Ever busy, Kelly’s newest play, a dark comedy entitled Alan’s Search for the Best Girl in All of Montreal, is set to premiere at Theatre 314 on Valentine’s Day. “You may notice that the name Alan is similar to Adam,” says Kelly. “There’s a reason for this. It is somewhat autobiographical—and by somewhat, I mean entirely.”

The “way too confessional” play about failed relationships and one-night stands has four actresses playing 20 or so different girlfriends, and a mother character who lives under the bed.

Kelly has also been picked for the writing unit of Playwrights’ Workshop of Montreal, where his new tragedy, The Succubus, about forms of addiction, is being developed.