Messy breakup for Tremblay family

Actor Denis O'Connor has been fired from the successful Centaur Theatre production of For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again. Michel Tremblay's autobiographical play about a mother and son premiered in English in Fall '98 with Centaur artistic director Gordon McCall directing Nicola Cavendish and O'Connor. It has since toured numerous Canadian cities. A fall 2000 run in Washington, D.C. will go on as scheduled, but without O'Connor.

"I am heartbroken," says the Montreal-born actor, who doesn't deny that there has been friction between him and his co-star for a long time. "Ultimately, I'm sure that [my being dumped] was Miss Cavendish's decision." The two had frequent arguments, O'Connor says, about the interpretation of one particular scene, arguments in which, O'Connor admits, he sometimes lost his cool. "I have a temper, and that's scary because I'm a big man. I scared Nicola."

O'Connor claims that Cavendish told him how to interpret his lines--something only a director is supposed to do. Despite their differences, O'Connor claims to still be "in awe" of Cavendish's talent. Gordon McCall, however, he characterizes as a "gutless wonder" who "left us to duke it out on our own." As of early this week, a Centaur PR person claimed to have no knowledge of the firing. At deadline, McCall's office had not returned a call from the Mirror. :

--Amy Barratt

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