HOSPITALITY 3:
INDIVIDUALISM WAS A MISTAKE
PME-ART
Harbourfront Worldstage
Created and performed
by Caroline Dubois, Claudia Fancello and Jacob Wren
At Enwave Theatre
in Toronto on Wednesday
Montreal's acclaimed multidisciplinary PME-ART wants to better understand the world through a unique approach to theatre. Under the co-artistic directorship of Jacob Wren and Sylvie Lachance, the group has redefined the intersection of where performer meets audience.
The world premiere of Hospitality 3: Individualism Was A Mistake is a good introduction to the collective's artistic ethic. Does it work? Maybe, and maybe not.
The Hospitality project is a continuing series that tries to come to grips with how friends and strangers can interact "in a manner that is at the same time useful, critical, hospitable and surprising." In Hospitality 3, the collective explores the idea of the greater community, specifically the strategies for working together "in both co-operation and discord."
The guiding genius seems to be former Torontonian Wren, a writer and "maker of eccentric performances." His fellow creators are Caroline Dubois and Claudia Fancello. While both are listed as choreographers, no dance ever happens although an extended movement sequence of sorts does occur.
The audience is brought into the theatre eight at a time. They sit at tables, and write their answers to four questions on Post-it notes, which are then stuck on the back wall. The four questions are quite unexpected. How do you decide when to fight and when to compromise? How do you get power? What can you learn from your enemies? When is the best time to lie?
The atmosphere is super-casual. There are bottles of water and a variety of cookies on a table, as well as a coat rack. Relaxation and comfort are the key. As the preshow questions/answers are happening, people are wandering around, hanging up their coats, eating, drinking and, of course, reading the Post-its.
The tables and chairs are removed and the audience members take their seats, which border the playing area on three sides (general admission, so they get to choose where). The convivial feel in the room is entirely different than at formal theatrical events. At this point, my expectations are very high.
A central table in the performing area is crammed with all manner of musical instruments, old LPs and a record player. There are also three chairs for the performers. Each one, in turn, chooses an LP, puts the vinyl on the record player and talks about the album. I find these stories very interesting.
For example, Wren talks about Robert Wyatt, the drummer of the British rock band Soft Machine, who became both a paraplegic and a Communist after falling out of a second-storey window.
Dubois describes a friend who has become a complete bore by always talking about how busy he is. She opts to play Mr. Lee's recording of Get Busy. Fancello talks about Ian MacKaye of the hardcore punk band Minor Threat, who grew up white in a black neighbourhood. His anti-racist song Guilty Of Being White later became an anthem for white supremacists.
There are other LP stories. The trio performs tunes on children's musical instruments when doing the splits, as they try to maintain physical contact while stretching away from each other. They create precariously balancing sculptures out of the LPs, musical instruments, chairs and tables.
Their last segment is calling the audience down to the back wall and analyzing the Post-it answers in terms of three categories: the individual idealists, the global villagers and the rebels. Then the audience is dismissed.
I can see the potential of the performance, but it needed a clearer, logical through line. It lacks that moment of epiphany when it all comes together, when the penny drops and these seemingly random events find a raison d'être.
Or just maybe, that blinding theatrical flash of understanding is never supposed to happen and we should accept our shared encounter as having an intrinsic worth of its own.
PME-ART has fascinated audiences around the world. For me, the jury is still out.
PME-ART performs at the Enwave Theatre through tomorrow. The Montreal performance at Usine C is Dec. 4 to 14.