Separatists and Shakespeare

>> The Bard meets the FLQ in Henry. Octobre. 1970.

by AMY BARRATT

The little company with the gross name and the chutzpah-to-spare is at it again. Gravy Bath Productions is betting that what the theatre-going public needs in the dog days of summer is an adaptation of Henry V, set during the FLQ crisis.

This incredibly energetic troupe of—for the most part—angry young men, has been producing sometimes bizarre, always surprising work for just over two years now. They came out of John Abbott College with a mission to change the face of English theatre in this city and a hunch that you couldn’t do that by producing one show a season. Henry is, by my count, the 10th show Gravy Bath has produced in its short life. Not bad for a no-budget company.

The artistic director and sometime nanny of this group is Matthew Tiffin, sometimes known as Madd Harold, an alias he acquired while playing a role in Anthony Kokx’s Critic. When they’re not producing Shakespeare, these lost boys—and girls—are usually producing Anthony Kokx. Indeed, with Henry. Octobre. 1970., they’re actually blending the two writers; Kokx has penned original FLQ scenes, in French, to be interspersed with the immortal words of the Bard.

Tiffin sounds a little nervous about how this interpretation will play in Quebec, and he should be. Most of Henry’s lines, it seems, have been given to the Trudeau character, though a few have been appropriated by René Lévesque. The whole French-English conflict at the heart of Henry V is bound to set pulses racing even in these “post-sovereigntist” times.

The production was born almost out of a dare. During rehearsals for last summer’s Tempest: Forecast Disaster, set in an insane asylum, one of the actors, Gareth Potter, threw out the idea of doing “Henry V with the FLQ.” Tiffin says he started going through the text and began to get excited about the idea. As with Tempest, he’s made some cuts to keep the action moving forward, and as mentioned, has arranged to flesh out the French/Quebec side of the story using additional text.

In addition to Trudeau and Lévesque, we should be able to recognize Robert Bourassa, Pierre Laporte and various students and rabble-rousers of the period (the battle scenes of the original are played out as student demos). The production also features video projections and pop songs from the October, 1970, hit parade.
After these two Shakespearean adaptations, Tiffin laughs that he’s had to shed his image of himself as a Shakespeare purist. “People just seem to be more engaged when it’s more immediate. A modern audience is not overly concerned with England at war [in the 15th century].” But set it during the October Crisis and that’s something people can sink their teeth into. Indeed, the most common reaction Tiffin has had when he tells people about the project is a quick intake of air. “But,” he adds, “both French and English friends have said, ‘Yes, do it.’”

As with Tempest, I can’t see any way of doing this concept without straying very far from what Shakespeare had in mind. Purists should probably stay away, but those who find the Bard stuffy and unapproachable might be prompted to take another look after a bracing dip in the Gravy Bath. :

Henry. Octobre. 1970. until Aug. 31, 8pm; matinée Aug. 24, 2pm; at Calixa-Lavallée Theatre (Parc Lafontaine), $10. 920-9183

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