Village Squire, 1973-04, Page 7Toronto thought he would like to do a
play about farm life. Through a
friend, he learned of a vacant farm
house near Holmesville and brought
his Croup of six actors to live in it for
about six weeks. None of the actors
had any prior experience in farming
but they immersed themselves in it.
They pitched in to help with chores.
They visited cattle auctions. They
listened and they watched, and every
night went back to the barn where
they acted out what they had seen.
They wrote songs.
Then, in August they put it all
together and invited everyone to come
to the farm one sunny Sunday after-.
noon to see the show... free. It was
a tough audience to play too. Most
who came were farmers, or at least •
people who knew what farming was
all about. Many were people the
actors had spoken too and who were
included, in one way or another in
the play. The director wanted to
see if this critical audience felt he
had captured farm life as he had in-
tended.
It was a piece of cake.
The audience loved it, even if a
few were embarrassed to see them-
selves and their feelings and actions
depicted by the actors. They stayed
afterward to talk to the actors and
have a big picnic.
The group went back to Toronto
planning to rewrite the play for a
city audience. Once there, however,
they soon realized that the show they
had already assembled, which had
been planned for only that one per-
formance, was so good they couldn't
improve it.
In late September it opened at the
old converted parish hall that serves
as their theatre. It was a smash. All
three major Toronto daily newspapers
gave unqualified rave reviews, quite
a feat when you realize Toronto crit-
ics are regarded as among the toughest
anywhere. Urjo Kareda, for instance,
the critic from the all-powerful Tor-
onto Star said: "Thompson and his
actors have helped us to know, under-
stand and love a community of people
beyond our sphere of familiarity. As
artists they can hve no higher ambit-
ions.
Pretty heady stuff. But one senses
that the raves of the critics probably
count for less with Thompson than the
delighted reaction of the people in
the barn that first afternoon.
Kareda hit dead on with the aim of
Thompson's work. He is interested in
telling Canadians about themselves,
in opening up lines of Gimll
ommundon
that have been fouled for years. In
this he obviously suceeded.
If your idea of what a director should
look like is based on what you see on
television on Oscar night, you're in
for a disappointment when you meet
Paul Thompson. He lodes more like
Moses as he led the Isrealites out of
the desert after 40 years. Short and
stocky, he has the kind of dusty, im-
mense beard one thinks of in conn-
ection with biblical heros or early
pioneers.
And in a way, both comparisions
are apt. He is a pioneer and he is
helping lead Canadians out of a wild-
erness in which they think the only
interesting things take place outside
our borders.
Born in Prince Edward Island, he
grew up at Atwood where his father
was a veterinarian. After his father
was killed in a airplane crash, he
lived in Guleph for a time. He went
to University of Western Ontario
planning to be a French teacher. After
graduation he went on to France as
part of what he calls the great Cana-
dian tradition of thinking that some-
where else was better than home. He
came back to Canada and worked on
his MA at University of Toronto and
won a scholarship back to France.
There he resumed his interest in "the
potential of theatre". He studied with
France's most radical theatre director,
Roger Planchon, who was operating a
theatre in the working class suburb of
Lyons. He helped translate English
plays such as Henry IV and O'Casey's
Purple Dust to French for the French
director.
"It was the first time I understood
Shakespeare" he said, "because I had
to eltplain the meaning of the lines,
not accept it as part of the poetry."
By the time Planchon's company sta-
ged Brecht's Mother Courage in Tou-
lon, Thompson was assistant to the
director. But he came home.
"If you're going to do something,
you have to do it where you come
from" he said, "I am not a Frenchman,
no matter how much I enjoyed the
meals and talking politics passio.. -
nately."
Planchon always asks those he
works vith what they think and uses
their ideas if he thinks they're good.
Thompson brought back this techni-
que and the desire to produce theatre,
not for the upper crust, but for the
working man.
He evolved his method of prepar-
ing a show which many call a "col-
lective". Each actor contributes and
there is no written script. He feels
this means the show will have more
spontaneity. Certain turns of phrase
which are especially effective will
turn up at every performance, but
otherwise the wording will likely be
different from one night to the next.
The meaning, however, is always the
same.
Farm Show wasn't the first, or the
last of his productions to use this
system. He also produced -
plays on the life of Pauline Johnston
and the 1837 Rebellion this season.
He made use of a writer in 1837 but
only as a part of the overall team.
Many are skeptical when they hear
the methods used. They fear the
way-out avant garde type production
which makes no sense. Those who
saw the Farm Show, however, know
differently. The result of this arran-
gement is a series of songs and sket-
chs that, though separate, fit like
a jig -saw puzzle to produce an effec-
tive picture of the whole way of life
of the farmer.
The system would likely fall apart
if Thompson had not surrounded him-.
self with an excellent cast of actors,
with wide experience in other parts
of theatre. One of the most talented
is his wife, Anne Anglin. Through
their immense skill, they are able to
not only originate their own material,
but to evoke the imagination of the
audience so well, they do not even
notice the lack of elaborate sets and
costumes. In the Farm Show, the
actors wear their everyday clothes.
This is all a part of Thompson's
philosophy of theatre. He believes
in making do with what is at hand.
Thus he is spared the expense of
costly trappings. Thus he makes use
of an old church hall in Toronto and
while on the tour will play in arenas
and auction barns, anywhere, to get
his message before the people. It is
a part of his idea of creating theatre
for ordinary people, for by getting
down to the essentials (the story and
the actors) he can keep costs low and
ticket prices low.
To do this, he and Passe Muraille
have lived through some tough times.
When he came back to Canada he
first went to Sault Ste. Marie. Alth-
ough the theatre group realized he
wanted to create theatre for the work-
ing class, they weren't quite ready
for him. The Boyfriend, their latest
success, was more their style.
So he joined Passe Muraille in Tor-
onto, a group that began in Contro-
versial Rochdale College with an
equally controversial play, Futz,
which was railed by police almost
nightly because of alleged obscenity.
The group was doing what he calls
"artsy-fartsy pseudo -sex plays and
the outraged approach".
His first play as a director was a
little less controversial: Notes on
Quebec. The three actors did not
even get paid. They got a percent-
age of the box office at the new site,
the parish hall of historic Trinity
Church, just off Yonge Street in
downtown Toronto. "And it was a
small box office", Thompson recalls.
But success was on the way and
plays lice Vampyr and Doukhobors
helped it along. Now every play the
theatre produces is allowed a pre-
production budget of $2000 for rehea-
rsal salaries, costumes and settings.
And the box-office is not so small
anymore. The Farm Show ran for
four weeks in September and could
have run for six months, Thompson
says, if the theatre had not been
booked for other productions. Even
at that, the run was a week longer
than scheduled, and the show played
for another two weeks before it began
the tour, from April 11 to 22. The
stay at the National Arts Centre and
a probable tour of New England with
the Farm Show will also give the
actors a nice payday. The money
they know they'll get there allows
them to take a chance on not having
too big a pay off on their western
Ontario tour.
But though the money is nice, the
real success for Thompson is being
7