Noisemakers 2000: Adapting himself

>> Michael Mackenzie brings his play, The Baroness and the Pig, to the big screen

by MATTHEW HAYS

Michael Mackenzie exudes a contagious enthusiasm when he discusses what drives him to write. "I think the passion for telling stories," says the British-born, Montreal-based scribe, "comes from the fact that life is so confusing and chaotic. The way that every culture has tried to get a grip on this is to tell stories as a way of understanding and encapsulating various issues."

Mackenzie must be facing a fair amount of chaos himself, having written six plays and collaborated on numerous plays and screenplays in the past decade. His latest project will bring one of his most successful works, The Baroness and the Pig, to the big screen--and this time, Mackenzie assumed the director's chair ("The thing you really notice," he says of the shoot, "is the fatigue--getting up at five every morning").

The seven-week shoot, which wrapped in the fall, was based on Mackenzie's own adaptation of his work. The film stars local actor Pascale Montpetit and concerns, in Mackenzie's own words, "an American in Paris, crossed with an enfants sauvages tale."

The film's setting--it's a late-19th century period piece set in Paris--meant the shoot took place entirely in Hungary, a country rich in locales and cheap on the budget.

While Mackenzie has spent the last 10 years steeped in Montreal arts boheme, his beginnings are surprising. After completing a PhD at the Universite de Montreal in the history of science and technology, Mackenzie landed a visiting fellowship at Princeton. Advising on the transfer of technology to developing nations, Mackenzie found much of his research imperiled after the Reagan administration came to power in 1980. "It was a prestigious, high-powered university, but I was feeling like I wasn't fitting in so much anymore. I opted out."

Mackenzie explains that the return to Montreal--and a shift to a career in the arts--seemed natural. "This is a great theatre town and Montreal's a very lively city. I'm not sure I could've done it all in New York, where the rents are so high."

Mckenzie's work has certainly attracted critical acclaim, much of his success coming in French translations of his work. His 1989 play, Geometry in Venice, enjoyed a five-year run in Quebec and has been translated into several other languages for productions abroad. His work drew the attention of Quebec theatre demigod Robert Lepage, and the two have since collaborated on numerous projects (Mackenzie had a hand in adapting Lepage's Le Polygraphe for the big screen).

Amid post-production of The Baroness (taking place at the Ex-Centris cinema complex), Mackenzie will not be neglecting his theatre roots in 2000. His new bilingual work, Farce, will be publicly workshopped at Espace Libre in February. And Mackenzie will also be conducting a workshop of a new play at The Kitchen, Manhattan's legendary performance art and theatre think tank.

Mackenzie concedes all the activity makes for a wicked schedule. "Exhausted? Perhaps a bit--but it keeps things exciting and interesting." l