SHAKESPEARE AND LENIN
Playwright Thiessen comes home
Playwright Vern Thiessen’s stories have been produced around the world. More than 100 outings of the Governor General awardwinning Shakespeare’s Will have been seen from New Zealand to New York since the show was written in 2005.
But seeing it in Edmonton, where it runs until Sept. 30 at the Historic 1886 Edmonton Cemetery, 11820 107 Ave., in an innovative production by Thou Art Here, is special for Thiessen, artistic director of Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre since 2014 and a graduate of the MFA playwright program at the University of Alberta.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever had a revival in Edmonton, which I consider my home base. So that’s really important to me,” said Thiessen. “And the second thing is that my plays have not been seen in Edmonton for 11 years, even though so many of the plays debuted here, like Apple, Einstein’s Gift, Vimy, and Shakespeare’s Will.
“So it’s really great to be in an audience again at home, and to see a play you wrote among people who know you. People came up to me and said ‘I’ve never seen one of your plays before’ and that moved me.”
Hot on the heels of Shakespeare’s Will comes another of Thiessen’s celebrated works, Lenin’s Embalmers. Nominated for a Governor General’s drama award in 2011, the work debuts Oct. 10 at the Timms Centre for the Arts, the inaugural production of the drama department’s 2017-18 season.
Based on a true story, the play is about two scientists tasked with embalming former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin. Thiessen also acts in the production, playing Lenin.
The Journal talked to the Winnipeg-born artist about his inspiration, his secret project and how to stop his dog, Scrappy, from eating chocolate. This interview has been condensed and edited.
Q Why do you suppose Shakespeare’s Will, which is being mounted in Poland in 2019 and has been translated into German, is so popular?
A I know why it resonates with producers. It’s a show for women, and that is often difficult to find, and it has Shakespeare in the title, and producers like that. It’s a one-woman show, so it’s cheap. People like that it’s a poetic work, and that I am bending history and the woman in the play is very powerful.
But I’ll say one thing — it rarely gets good reviews. The reviewers will often say they like the performances, but they often don’t like the play. And I have to say, in the case of this play, and in culture in general, 90 per cent of reviewers are men. It’s been fascinating that the play has succeeded despite the fact that it gets (crappy) reviews.
Q Lenin’s Embalmers, first mounted in New York in 2010, is getting its Edmonton debut. Why did it take so long ?
A We did a public reading of it at the Citadel in 2009, but I think the reason it hasn’t been done here is that it’s a very expensive show, because it has a big cast. And it’s a little wacky, and off the beaten track, with some technical elements.
Q You’ve said that Lenin’s Embalmers is a personal play for you. Why?
A It’s because my parents are from Russia and both of my grandfathers were taken away to the gulag by Stalin’s henchman. One came back and the other was never heard from again. Despite that, my parents are still the funniest people I know, and all of my relatives who are from Russia are very funny and see the bright side of life. This play feels most like my family. It’s dead serious, but funny at the same time.
Q As a writer, do you have questions you are eternally trying to answer in your plays?
A A lot of my plays are about people who are looking for a community to believe in. There is something about feeling as if you don’t belong in this world. I would certainly say that in Lenin’s Embalmers, both the embalmers are desperate to fit in and to have success and respect. When they finally attain it, they are betrayed by it. As in all good tragedies, they learn too late what their faults were.
Q You’re acting in Lenin’s Embalmers. Are you good?
A I’ll let you be the judge of that, although in my own defence, I was in a Fringe show called Gemini in 2017, and I was nominated for best actor in the Fringe (in the Sterling awards). I had a long and active acting career back in the day. I love this part in Lenin’s Embalmers, because it’s really small. I’m on stage a lot but I don’t have much to say.
Q What other projects are you working on?
A Right now, I have a commission for the Stratford festival, an adaptation of Call of the Wild, by Jack London. And then I am working on a TV miniseries, based on Vimy, for a production company in Toronto, and a couple of commissions that I can’t talk about.
Q You have had considerable success with commissions. But is there a play you really want to write, just for you?
A Well, you know what they say about plays, at least on Broadway — you can make a killing, but not a living. In terms of the commissions, I built my career that way, although early in my career, I wrote on spec.
But there is a project that I’ve been wanting to write for many years, my secret project. I’m hoping I will hit the time in my life when I can write about it and that, for me, will be the ultimate. I don’t talk about it, because you can talk it away and it will just vanish, like you’ve popped a balloon. So I am very protective about it.