No Bard bomb

>> Gravy Bath’s Henry. Octobre. 1970. Is a
fascinating take on the FLQ crisis

by AMY BARRATT

Where were you during the 1970 October Crisis? Neither the actors nor the director of Henry. Octobre. 1970. were alive at the time, yet they’ve recreated the era admirably in this breakthrough production for Gravy Bath Productions.

There are two kinds of Shakespeare adaptations: those that illuminate the text and those that subvert it. This production, like last year’s Tempest: Forecast Disaster (set in a loony bin), definitely falls into the latter category. The current adaptation of Henry V, by Madd Harold, and with additional text by Anthony Kokx, strays at least as far away from what Shakespeare had in mind as did their Tempest, and yet it works much better. Perhaps that’s because the framework that has been laid over the text, that of the FLQ crisis, and specifically the kidnapping of Pierre Laporte, is much more concrete than the generic insane asylum of Tempest.

You leave this show feeling like you’ve seen less an interesting take on Shakespeare than a fascinating take on the October Crisis, although for those familiar with Henry V, it’s interesting to see how well certain lines can be turned to the purpose. Madd Harold ends the third act (going into intermission) with the line, “The ransom is a frail and worthless trunk,” a slight recasting of Henry’s “My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk,” which actually comes earlier in the act. The words “ransom” and “trunk” can not fail to resonate in the context of the Laporte kidnapping, especially when taken away from the king and put in the mouth of a francophone working man.

Madd Harold does a lot of this line-swapping. Henry’s famous “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers” speech is spoken by one of the kidnappers, in French. Except for the poetry, this is no longer Henry V; it is something new, and very exciting.

What is the production’s point of view on the October Crisis? For much of the play, the kidnappers, and the student rebels to a lesser degree, are portrayed as empty-headed buffoons. The politicians: Trudeau (Gareth Potter), Bourassa (Mike Hughes), Lévesque (Tony Palermo), and various MPs, come off somewhat better, but a federalist love-in this ain’t. Katherine, the French princess wooed by Henry in the original, becomes a tough-talking student leader (played by Sara-Maude Duguay). The dopey scene, in which her lady-in-waiting, Alice, teaches her English, has been powerfully reinterpreted, with Katherine using her newly acquired vocabulary to taunt her guards. What they’ve done with the scene in which Henry asks her to marry him is a stroke of genius that creates a devastating ending I won’t reveal.

In the end, this Henry is an interpretation of the events of 1970 that manages to glorify no one, and to condemn either no one or everyone. The liberal use of documentary footage of the time, as well as hit songs of the period-Edwin Starr’s “War (What is it good for?)” and the Jackson Five’s impossibly sweet “I’ll Be There”-are extremely evocative. This is Gravy Bath’s best-looking production to date, with Genevieve Genest’s simple design put to brilliant use. More than 20 actors work together to pull this thing off, and they do.

This week, the Montreal English Critics Circle is meeting to evaluate the season. I’m glad we will have Henry. Octobre. 1970., to include in our considerations.:

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

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