Regina-based company brings Woolf to the round in Saskatoon
Mark Claxton’s relatively new theatre company might be based out of Regina, but he’s helping bring an old classic of the stage to Saskatoon.
Claxton’s company, Xtasis Film & Theatre, is producing the Edward Albee classic Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? as the first show in this year’s Live Five Independent Theatre series. The play focuses on a pair of couples as the older pair exposes the younger to a series of cruel psychological games that only serve to expose the cracks in their own relationship.
“Much like (Arthur Miller’s) Death of a Salesman ... it’s a play everyone has heard of but hardly anyone has seen,” he said. “Maybe studied it in theatre class ... but that’s a far different thing than experiencing it live on a stage.”
Despite basing his company in Regina, Claxton’s cast of performers — himself, Pamela Haig Bartley, Sarah Bergbusch, and Jaron Francis — come from both Saskatoon and Regina.
Claxton said they wanted to bring the show to Saskatoon through Live Five because of the infrastructure ON THE BOARDS Staging Company (the organization that runs Live Five) provides to both show producers and the audience.
“Live Five has such a well-established subscriber base and audience base,” he said. “We also felt that Saskatoon’s theatre community would respond well to this show ... we wanted to give people an opportunity to experience it.”
Claxton said the idea to put on this particular show came from a conversation he had with Saskatoon-based performer and now fellow cast member Jaron Francis.
And for a show that Claxton called “hilarious and horrifying” by turns, they wanted to do something a little different with the production. So along with a cast and crew that’s brought in people from both Regina and Saskatoon, this production of the classic play will be done in the round — where the audience completely surrounds the stage.
Since the vast majority of the play takes place in a living room, Claxton said performing in the round helps bring the audience into a more intimate and “compelling” atmosphere.
“I don’t imagine it’s been done very often with this play,” he said. “The audience is going to kind of be in the living room as well, right close up to the action.”
It’s not unheard of that a company from outside Saskatoon has a place in Live Five, and Claxton said combining resources — collaborating with fellow artists — is the best way to produce theatre in Saskatchewan.
“I think we often have this ‘Regina-saskatoon’ mentality, I think we sort of put a lot of emphasis on the difference,” he said. “In a province our size and the resources we have to work with to make art happen, I prefer to think of us as Saskatchewan artists.”
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? is at The Refinery in Saskatoon from Oct. 3 to 6 and Oct. 10 to 13.