Poetic farce
Howard Rosenstein plays a Westmount lawyer asked to finance a struggling magazine in Infinithéâtre’s Ars Poetica
by NEIL BOYCE
January 19, 2012
OBNOXIOUS, POMPOUS AND HOLIER-THAN-THOU: (L to R) Rosenstein, Elana Dunkelman, Paula Jean Hixson and Danielle Desormeaux in Ars Poetica Photo by BRIAN MOORE
He takes himself extremely seriously. So the more serious you play it, the funnier it is. And some of the lines I’ve been given are just brilliant.” I’m talking laughs with actor Howard Rosenstein as he and the rest of Infinithéâtre, under Guy Sprung’s direction, ready the Arthur Holden farce Ars Poetica for its debut. “I’m obnoxious, pompous and holier-than-thou,” Rosenstein says, over garbled voices in the background of our phone call. “Oh, yeah,” he continues, “I’m being reminded that that’s my character, not me.”
Holden’s story looks at Naomi, a young woman interning at a poetry magazine in Montreal and trying to convince her dad that the vocation of a bona fide poet is a marvellous career choice. Her father Hugh (Rosenstein) is part of the Westmount set; a lawyer who makes significantly more per year than your average poet, and who can’t understand why his daughter is wasting a summer working for free at some grubby hole-in-the-wall. After all, she could be getting paid apprenticing at his job and driving a BMW.
To tip Holden’s farce over the edge, as one must, the play opens with Hugh visiting his daughter’s workplace. The mag’s broke and about to go belly up, but would daddy perhaps care to financially support this fine publication?
Rosenstein’s take on his character comes from an unexpected source. “I’m channelling my father,” he confesses. “It’s interesting to be revisiting him. All the crap I had to deal with in terms of my breaking out of my house and being on my own—it’s similar to what I’m dealing with now, but from the father’s side. So I approached it from a very personal standpoint. Usually I just try to imagine a role,” he adds, “but having several lawyers in my family who behave similarly, I don’t have to imagine too much.”
While commonplace in Quebec French-language theatre, the five weeks of rehearsal Infinithéâtre have at their disposal is a nearly unheard-of luxury for an anglo company and it’s something Rosenstein wishes would happen more often. “It’s always a question of budget,” he says. “The model we work under now doesn’t really serve the best interests of an opening. Most productions that open aren’t particularly ready when they do, but I think we will be. Having said all that,” he adds laughing, “we’d better blow you out of the water.”
Noël Burton, Danielle Desormeaux and Paula Jean Hixson round out the cast, along with newcomer Elana Dunkelman in the role of Hugh’s daughter Naomi. “She’s everything a professional has to be,” says Rosenstein. “She hits her marks, says her lines, and one of the great things about her being young is that she’s not overdoing anything. She’s extremely realistic in the moment.”
All the poetry heard in the play is from contemporary local English poets, something Sprung wants to make into a kind of additional character for the piece. Rosenstein’s worked with the director on several previous productions, and says Sprung loves to challenge his actors. “He’s open to anything he sees—on the street, in a conversation—and he’ll introduce that as a serendipitous offering. He’s an artist who can put you in a place you’d have never thought of on your own.” ■
ARS POETICA, TO FEB. 12 AT BAIN ST-MICHEL (5300 ST-DOMINIQUE). INFO: (514) 987-1774, INFINITHEATRE.COM. TICKETS ARE $10–$20.
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