The Citizen-Blyth Festival 2001, 2001-06-13, Page 27Actor Brendan Wall has ties," Wall said.
said good-bye to Toronto for He's leaving his normal
the summer. social circle but isn't worried.
In other showS Wall has 'A few of his good friends are
acted in outside of Toronto at the Bluewater Summer
the actors all stick together Festival in Kincardine. If he
while they run the show and gets lonely he can always visit
on days off they all scurry them.
back to Toronto. This is Wall's first season in
Even if Wall wanted to head Blyth. He'll play in both The
back to Toronto he won't have Outdoor Donnellvs and
a place to run to, he's sublet Corner Green.
his apartment for the summer. Before' Wall, 28, started
"I've severed all Toronto working on the Donnelly
show he hadn't heard of the
massacre.
"I was ignorant about the
Donnellys," Wall said.
Wall became involved in
the Donnelly project after
doing a show with director
Paul Thompson's wife, Anne
Anglin, at Theatre Passe
Muraille this past winter.
Wall began talking with
Thompson and was invited to
work on the Donnellys.
Wall said he finds it
intimidating that people know
the story so well around here.
He began researching and
now is quite _familiar with the
Donnelly tragedy.
This winter Wall also did a
general audition for Blyth and
Was offered a part in Corner
Green. Brendan Wall
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.4)
BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2001. PAGE 3.
Paul Thompson takes a third look at Donnelly legend
By Mark Nonkes
Citizen staff .
It's a borderline obsession:
Paul Thompson seems to be
endlessly fascinated with the
story of the Lucan Donnellys.
Something about the story
just keeps calling him back,
The Outdoor Donnellys is
Thompson's third time
recreating the tragedy.
"It's a huge gripping story,"
Thompson said.
Indeed it is, ,the story of the
Donnellys -is a story of
mystery, betrayal, love,
hatred, justice, injustice and
murder. It is a story that
involved an entire
Community. The Donnellys
typify an era, a time after the
land had been cleared and
social life in rural Ontario was
beginning to develop.
"As you study the story you
get a very clear picture of how
the area got settled and how
community life evolved,"
Thompson said sitting on the
grass near the Festival's
Garage workshops, where
stage coaches for the show are
being constructed.
And although the Donnelly
story is set primarily in
Lucan, it seeps up into Huron
County (in fact Lucan was
part of Huron at that lime).
--The Donnellys were a New
World success story with their
stage coach business, stage
coaches that ran northward to
Exeter.
Those stage coaches
created major conflicts.
The Outdoor. Donnellys
When the Donnellys launched
the stage coaches that ran
from London to Lucan to
Exeter the competition. was
tierce..
Over the stage coach wars
fires were lit to other stage
coaches, stables, and horses
were hurt or
killed. While
the Donnellys
were also hit by
the competition
war, they
continued to
succeed.
Jealousy must
have sunk in
because soon
every crime,
every tire was
blamed on the
Donnellys,
people hated
them.
Since 1996
Thompson has
created and brought three
collectives to the BIth stage.
Two of those shows,
Barndance Live! and Death of
the Hired Man were
remounted for a second
season. Blyth audience flock
to the Thompson collectives.
Now he dives into the
Donnelly world.
Thompson is sure the
Donnellys weren't just
hooligans terrorizing the town
of Lucan and area. The
Donnellys had friends in high
places, like a future Attorney-
General of Ontario. The
Donnellys and this upcoming
politician wrote back and
forth.
"If they were just a
hoodlum family why would
the guy waste his time doing
this?" Thompson questioned.
The story had so many
points of view, everyone in
the town had something to say
about the Donnellys. The
Outdoor Donnellys will
illustrate the different points
of view from opinion in the
blacksmith's shop to women
preparing food at a wedding.
"A lot of the vilification
comes up in the rewriting of it
after the murders," Thompson
said.
This show has two sections,
a pre-show in which 40
community members act out
different scenes from the
Donnelly days
around the town of
Blyth. The main
show features nine
professional actors
in the outdoors,
near the arena.
The show is sure
to impress with
live horse and
rebuilt stage
coaches.
Not only will the
production
showcase the story
of the Donnellys
and their enemies,
but it will feature
people from
around the local Lucan
community at the time.
The production was turned
into the community event
because there were so many
characters that could be used
in recreating the Donnelly
times.
Recently a group of
researchers went to Birr,
Ontario where the Donnelly
stage coaches stopped on the
route from Lucan to London.
The owner of a store took the
group around the back and
showed them a set of doors.
Those doors were used at the
time of the Donnellys.
"You're touching history
right there," Thompson
smiled.
The story has always been
controversial. Led by a police
officer, a mob walked to the
Donnelly homestead in
Biddaulph Township. Four
Donnellys were beaten and
killed in their home which
was then burnt down.
Another Donnelly was shot at
his brother's house.
Creating collectives has
become Thompson's
In the play Wall said he can
imagine playwright Gordon
Pinsent speaking the words
that are in the script.
Wall became interested in
theatre in high school when a
drama teacher directly from
teacher's college took over
the drama program.
A rebellious teenager, Wall
wore big boots, a leather
jacket and a mohawk. But for
the school production he let
the mohawk grow out.
Wall said he had such fun
playing make-believe that he
decided to study acting at
York University.
Since then he's graduated
and played a number of
different roles around Toronto
in shows at Theatre Passe
Muraille, Tarragon Theatre
and Buddies and Bad Times.
After school he realized
that - his friends that studied
technical theatre were getting
jobs right out of school. So to
just work in the theatre scene
he hired himself out as a
strong back.
But Wall has been acting at
several venues that he has
,dreamed of working in.
including Blyth. •
Now he can check it oil the
list. --MN
trademark. It was only a year
ago when Thompson told the
story of the last days of the
threshing gangs and
transformed- the inside of
Memorial Hall into a barn in
the remount of Death of the
Hired Man.
Thompson began his theatre
career after he graduated from
University of Western Ontario
with a degree in English and
French.
He began assistant directing
at the Stratford Festival but
the type of thing Thompson
wanted to do didn't really fit
in with Stratford.
After being part of the
creation of Theatre Passe
Maurille in Toronto
Thompson came to Clinton to
research and create The Farm
Show then toured it back to
this area.
Thompson and his wife
actress Anne Anglin have two
children, Severn and Rachel,
both in the theatre business.
Thompson said he enjoys
doing shows about rural life
because when he was a boy he
was sent to his uncle's farm
near Listowel to become a
man.
The Donnellys show the
story of early rural Ontario,
Thompson said. The early
settlers had to not only
survive the elements of nature
but also the social forces of
the neighbours, something the
Donnellys didn't manage to
do.
After three renditions of the
Donnelly show it could be
thought Thompson would
know the story inside out.
But he continues to learn
more. It's something he never
tires of hearing about.
While working on this show
he's met people whose
relatives have connections
directly to the Donnellys.
Perhaps it's the spirits of the
Donnellys that drive him to
keep coming back to the story.
"The very fact that people
are perpetually drawn to this
story, 'shows there is some '
kind of force there," he said.
Blyth's home for summer for Wall