FANTASTICKS ENCORE
Production of 1960s musical tackles issue of sexual assault head-on
Korda Artistic Productions is asking theatre-goers to consider why people are drawn to stories that put women in danger, as the troupe stages the longest-running musical in history.
Sixty years after its debut, The Fantasticks continues to entertain with its silly, romantic storyline, but criticism has arisen over the years regarding the show making light of violence, and sexual assault in particular, said director Tova Perlmutter.
Perlmutter has chosen to tackle the issue head-on with the hope that people will reflect further on it while also being entertained.
“We thought a great deal about how to handle the issue,” Perlmutter said.
“Our production highlights the problematic ways even women often consider forced to be sexy and romantic.”
The musical tells the story of two neighbouring fathers who trick their children into falling in love by pretending to feud.
Perlmutter has cast both a male and a female performer to play the leading role of El Gallo together, with both actors onstage at the same time and taking turns interacting with other characters and commenting to the audience.
“It’s so exciting to watch as these wonderful performers reflect each other’s choices,” she said. “El Gallo is much deeper and more layered with these two building him together.”
Perlmutter said there’s a version of the show that censors the word rape, removing it from the dialogue, but after extensive discussions with the entire cast, “we decided that would actually take out from the central point of the show.
“However, in our production, women use the word far more than men. “
It’s a way of trying to point (out) this is not sort of simply a problem of men attacking women at random. This is a situation and a system in our society where women and men consider danger to be exciting and what can and should we do about that as people.”
Perlmutter said she’s also interested in exploring how women participate at times in sexualizing and sacrificing each other to serve the dreams of romance and to gain power.
“The first half of (the show) is almost candy floss. It’s light and sweet and cute,” Perlmutter said. “And then in the second half of the show, it kind of twists everything sideways.
“Part of the point of the show is that what you think will be charming and lovely and delightful, has a really dark side.”
Based on a book by Tom Jones, The Fantasticks was designed with no set and minimal props.
Perlmutter credits its creators with a similar vision to hers.
“I’m hoping that we will get people to think, but I also give the creators of the show enough credit to believe that that’s not something I imported to the show. I think they wanted that, too.”