Play’s director bares all about challenges, rewards of working with nude cast
Based on actual events, awardwinning American playwright David Ian Lee’s 2014 drama The Curing Room revolves around seven Soviet officers — aged 20 to 65 — imprisoned with neither clothing nor personal possessions in a monastery basement in Nazioccupied Poland in the spring of 1944.
The searing thriller receives its North American premiere in a coproduction between Lethbridge’s Theatre Outré and Calgary’s Theatre BSMT at Lantern Community Church March 7 to 11.
“We wanted to explore work that uses the naked human form as a means to promote a healthy sense of body positivity and empowerment for our audiences and artists,” says Theatre Outré artistic director Jay Whitehead, referring to the company’s first “Stripped Down” season. “We also wanted to counter the curious taboo against our natural bodies in North American culture.”
“The play’s unforgiving nature and willingness to explore what it means to survive make it a perfect fit for our new mandate” adds Theatre BSMT artistic director Kyle Schulte. “Dark, gritty, dirty, and unknown.”
I recently caught up with the production’s director, Gail Hanrahan, an associate professor who teaches acting and directing at the University of Lethbridge. She’s also a longtime friend who, in 1985, cast me in the first play she ever directed (and the first I ever starred in) when we were drama students at McGill University in Montreal.
Q Why did you choose this project?
A I’ve always been attracted by a challenge, and this play — no set, no props, no costumes — seemed like a big challenge. Last fall, I directed The Drowning Girls by Beth Graham, Daniela Vlaskalic, and Charlie Tomlinson. It made sense to follow up an all-female cast with an all-male cast.
Q Were you at all apprehensive?
A I had absolutely no reservations. I just thought it was really exciting. It’s about a specific event in World War II, and I’m definitely not a war scholar, but what attracted me was the human story within the play. Q What are some of the main themes?
A The play places seven human beings in very extreme situations, and asks what that means. How does society get reordered in extreme circumstances? Who leads? Who is expendable? And why listen to any leader when there’s no social structure?
Q What challenges did nudity pose?
A The challenge of having seven nude actors is also the gift of the play. In terms of acting, there’s no relying on certain well-used ways of interpreting character — like playing with your glasses, or wearing your costume in a certain way, or shielding yourself behind a wig. Here, the actors literally have nowhere to hide. They’re in an extremely vulnerable state, but every one of them has completely embraced being naked. Watching my cast so fearlessly and fiercely attack these demanding roles without any armour has been both moving and inspiring. Q Why should audiences experience The Curing Room?
A Well, first of all, it’s a great play, and this is its North American premiere. All great plays are about human interaction. This play is about how noble we are as human beings, but how we are anything but noble when we feel our very existence threatened. We’re talking life and death. These characters are put into situations where they do things they never expected to do — things they’re not particularly proud of — because they’ve literally been pushed into a corner and have to defend themselves. So, to me, the play is really very powerful. It’s a great mix of cerebral thought and visceral action. There’s a lot of fighting. Blood and gore. Trust me, there are very vital decisions made by these characters. It’s as if they’re the last seven human beings left on earth — and that’s fascinating to me. I hope it will be to audiences as well.
Daniel Vaillancourt is an actor and writer based in Southern California. As a journalist, he has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, and The Advocate, among many other publications.