Readings and anarchy

Bare-bones performances hit the stage,
Anarchist fest gears up

BEFORE DESDEMONA: Tyrone Benskin

By NEIL BOYCE

If you haven’t witnessed it, a public reading with actors has the feel of a radio drama (or what live radio in its early days must have felt like): a fresh and direct way to experience a playwright’s work.

Two opportunities await in the week ahead from two great theatres—as well as some other left-of-the-dial stuff.

In their “Discovery Series” of Afro-Canadian writers, Black Theatre Workshop offers a reading of Harlem Duet, by Djanet Sears. Performed for the first time in Montreal, the Governor General Award-winning drama is a prelude to Othello through the eyes of his first wife, Billie.

Featuring Tamara Brown as the spurned spouse and Tyrone Benskin as the moody moor, it follows Billie’s path of revenge and madness as Othello leaves her for a white woman, spanning a hundred years of Black history as it looks at the influence of white pop culture on African Americans.

“It’s about the feeling of abandonment felt by African American women when their men leave them for non-African Americans,” says Benskin. “But that isn’t the main thrust of the story. It’s not just a pooh-poohing of interracial romance.”

A writer, director and performer, Sears is now known internationally through works like The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God (which also won the Governor General’s Literary Award) and Afrika Solo, which BTW staged in 2001.

“I really like staged readings,” Benskin adds. “They allow you to delve into the text and not worry about direction: where to move, when to pick up the glass of water...”

May 11, 7:30 p.m. at MAI Café (3680 Jeanne-Mance). Info: (514) 932-1104, ext. 226.

From science to stage

At the NDG Maison de la culture (3755 Botrel), Infinithéâtre presents a free public reading of award-winning Montreal writer Jaspreet Singh’s play, Elephants (May 8, 7:30 p.m.). Singh, a former research scientist with a PhD in chemical engineering, has won critical acclaim for his short stories, including the collection, 17 Tomatoes: Tales from Kashmir.

His post-9/11 drama looks at the culturally schizophrenic existence of Irfan Hussein, a Kashmiri-American nuclear physicist travelling back to his birthplace to bury his mother. Nukes, terrorism, racism and the complicated identities of our globalized life are all in the mix. An open discussion follows the performance. Call to reserve: (514) 872-2157.

Staged anarchy

Hey kids, the 2009 International Montreal Anarchist Theatre Festival is almost here!

The Beautiful Non-Violent Anarchist Révolution, from seminal New York theatre collective The Living Theatre and featuring its co-founder Judith Malina, now 82-years-old, will be in Montreal May 13–14.

The longest running avant-garde theatre collective in the U.S., The Living Theatre has staged nearly 100 productions on five continents since its founding (with Julian Beck) in 1947.

Also appearing at the two-day fest are Montreal performance artist Geneviève Letarte, la Chorale de la Maison la Virevolte (Longueuil), and Maikan—an Innu troupe with giant puppets from Uashat-Maliotenam in northern Quebec. At DB Clarke Theatre (1455 de Maisonneuve W.). Info: (514) 981-5330.

Finally, Theatre 314 (10 des Pins W., #314) presents Secondhand Tapes, a look at porn, puberty, and prairie towns. Written and directed by Jeff Kubik, it features Owen Clark as a Calgarian boy who finds his brother’s treasured stash of dirty movies and ditches his church youth group for porn stardom. May 7–9, info: info: (514) 842-5320.