A CUSTOMIZABLE THEATRE OUTING
Life imitates art as a Calgary theatre is about to get as wild and unconventional as its subject matter.
Major Matt Mason Collective will première Premium Content from June 21 to 30 at the Pumphouse’s Joyce Doolittle Theatre.
Edmonton playwright David Gagnon Walker’s play looks at what happens when a couple decides to invite others to participate in their sex life.
The collective, under the direction of award-winning playwright and actor Geoffrey Simon Brown, is taking the very non-traditional approach of having six actors play different characters at various performances, which requires them to each know all the lines in the play.
Zoe Glassman, who stars in the show with Mikaela Cochrane, Vanessa Jette, Evan Med, Jay Northcott and Joe Perry, explains that Walker wrote the play without assigning genders to any of the characters.
“That means by altering the configurations of the characters, Premium Content can be entirely about homosexual stories or about heterosexual pairings or a mixture of the two. We will post the configurations on the website (mmmtheatrecollective.com) so people can choose which stories they want to see.
People can choose to see characters and situations similar to their own or watch something foreign to them. Yet still, theatregoers can choose to be surprised at what unfolds the night they attend.
“The great advantage to this approach is that people can return to see a different variation on the stories simply because the genders of the characters have been switched.”
Glassman says Major Matt Mason has been wanting to stage Premium Content for three years, ever since Walker submitted it to the company’s playwriting competition.
“It didn’t win that year, but it was definitely a standout. Once David developed it further through the Citadel Theatre’s playwrights forum in Edmonton, we jumped at the opportunity to give Premium Content its world première.”
The play explores such topics as polyamory, consent, the internet and art.
“The characters search out a polyamorous relationship, wanting to be cool and less boring. They acknowledge that such relationships require consent and clear communication. Unfortunately these two people are not very good at communicating which muddies their whole concept of consent.”
Glassman says that as the events unfold there are going to be people in the audience who don’t think certain choices are OK while other people will accept them.
“That’s the kind of conversations we want to excite in the audience. We want people to discuss the show after it is over.”
She says Walker’s play also looks at how the internet has altered the concept of consent.
“People share everything on the internet these days, from private images to stories about their relationships, but is it OK to discuss a former lover without that person’s consent even though it’s your story as well?
“This has always been a concern with writers who use their affairs and partners in their stories, novels, plays and screenplays but now it has become so common on the internet.”
For showings, prices and tickets, go to premiumcontent.bpt.me