The Citizen-Blyth Festival 2001, 2001-06-13, Page 36Best Wishes
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PAGE 12. BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13. 2001.
Mary Long wants to make people laugh in Narcisse
By Mark Nonkes
Citizen staff'
To make people all laugh at once.
that's hard work, actress Mary Long
said.
Narcisse Mondoux is a rare privilege
for director Linda Moore.
The production is the last show a
great Canadian theatre pioneer
wrote. Moore said.
The play was written by Gratien
Gelinas when he was 80. Gelinas is
one of the forefathers of Canadian
theatre, Moore said. He inspired
other great Quebec writers like
Michel Trembley.
The Passion of Narcisse Mondoux
was written in French and is not
often performed in English, Moore
said.
"It's a really charming play,"
Moore said in a phone interview
from Halifax.
Gelinas was a great craftsman
when he wrote, his stories had lots of
humour in them but combined the
laughs with aspects of humanity.
The show is a comedy about a
middle-aged plumber who woos a
widow. The Passion of Narcisse
Mondoux has two actors who will
have to work very intensely together,
Moore said.
The two actors Moore will be
working with will be Mary. Long and
Blyth favourite Ted Johns. This is
the first time Moore has worked with
Continued from Pg. 10
see if the show will go on.
Another one of the challenges for
the outdoor production is to make an
outdoor space intimate. Somerville
worked on an outdoor show last
summer in Oakville. One of -the
problems there was noisy jet skiers
on Lake Ontario.
The.n there is the challenge of
acting in mud and bugs. But all the
challenges fail to compare to the
magic of a show outdoors,
Somerville said.
"We take the world and transform
it," Somerville said.
This is Somerville's second time at
the Festival. Last year she stage
managed the remount of Death of the
Hired Man.
As a stage manager, Somerville
gets to put her hands onto many
different aspects of the show: aspects
like the artistic, technical and
directing areas.
"You get a b,etter idea of how
everything works," Somerville said.
Somerville enjoys working on
collectives because they are a
collaborative effort.
Long chuckles as she tells the story
of a great Canadian actor who was on
his death bed and someone asked
what it was like to die: "Comedy's
tougher," the old man said.
Making people cry is easy, Long
and she is very
excited to do so.
The play starts
off at the funeral of
the widow's
husband and then
transforms into the
widow's home,
Moore said.
It's a show with
surprise elements
that will have the
audience laughing,
Moore said.
"I think they will
be touched, it's
very clever,"
Moors said.
The surprise elements in the play
make it an outstanding piece of
work, Moore said.
Moore directed Stolen Lives - The
Albert Walker Story last summer for
the Festival.
Over the winter Moore worked on
a show with university students in
Victoria and a multi-media play that
recently opened in Halifax.
Moore started her directing career
in 1970 as an apprentice at the Shaw
Festival.
Since then she has worked from
The subjects that collectives deal
with are usually based on Canadian
history and have something that
pertains to the area where it is being
performed, Somerville said.
Growing up in a small town outside
of Toronto, Somerville enjoys
working in places like Blyth.
Somerville said working in Blyth is
like working at a summer camp. It is
an enjoyable place where she is paid
for what she loves to do while being
away from the city.
Enjoyable even with a broken
pelvic bone.— MN
The Passion
of Narcisse Mondoux
said. But to make people happy is
tough. It is a challenge that Long
really enjoys.
Long hopes to have the audience
laughing in The Passion of Narcisse
Mondoux as the widow of a
sea to sea in Canada, from Victoria to
Halifax. In 1987 she directed the
Blyth hit Another Season's Pmmise
by Anne Chislett and Keith Roulston.
Moore was the artistic director at
Neptune Theatre in Halifax
throughout the 1990s.—MN
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politician.
In the play Long is
wooed by a plumber. As
the widow Long is a self-
sufficient woman who is
sweet and demure.
She is a lady who is
warm and vulnerable, Long
said.
Long started acting when
she was eight years old on
TV in the 1960s.
Over her years in the
performance arts, Long has
acted in many comedies
and plays, commercials,
radio series and TV shows.
Acting is something that
has always been in Long's
blood, it is -her only
passion, she said.
Long worked in Blyth in
1984 as the assistant
director on Country Hearts
written by Ted Johns. Now
she will co-star with Johns
in The Passion of Narcisse
Mondoux.
The show illustrates the
point that life, keeps
changing as long as someone is
living, Long said.
It is a show that deals with politics,
something that Long is interested in.
Recently she moved to Ottawa where
she said she can get a bird's-eye-view
of federal politics.
Working on The Passion of .either of the actors
Somerville brings outdoor
theatre experience
to Outdoor Donnellys
Linda Moore feels privileged to bring
work of legendary Gratien Gelinas
Working for the inclusion of arts is
something Long would like to bring
to any political table.
This summer Long hopes to relax
in Blyth. Long's husband Sandy
Crawley will be working at the
Bluewater Playhouse in Kincardine.