LETTER ONE

A HIGHLY UNUSUAL TWO NIGHTS OF THEATRE

Two Letters
Written and enacted by Tony Nardi

A couple of months ago I went to the most unusual theatre event I have attended – ever. It featured no sets, no costumes and an actor “reading” from his laptop, for two hours (with one short break), two nights in a row. Madness, I hear you say! That was certainly what I thought, especially in my “heritage” capacity as a former theatre critic at the Globe and Mail. But I went because I have a daughter deeply involved in theatre who thought it was “important” and because I wanted to see how bad a bad idea could be.

Big surprise! It turned out to be the theatre event of my lifetime. Totally gripping, touching, a little terrifying, alternately depressing and exhilarating. My daughter was also right. You had the definitive impression, as the whole event unfolded, of being in on something important: an underground rumble surfacing with angry might.

A very fine, award-winning Toronto actor named Tony Nardi got very, very angry in the fall of 2005. What had set him off was a banal television script that went beyond satirical stereotyping into a territory defined as “deeply dumb but not less deeply offensive.” This was coupled with two “offensive” theatre reviews of a production of a commedia dell-arte play by Carlo Goldoni entitled The Amorous Servant.

Nardi, according to Michael Posner of The Globe,then proceeded to create “an indictment of Canada’s performing arts, or at least those aspects of it he knows best….At the heart of his broad critique is the claim that Canada’s English-language theatre is largely irrelevant – populated by mediocre directors and a talented but cowed pool of actors who have become compliant pawns, afraid to challenge the system for fear of losing work.”

I have invited Tony Nardi to take shelter for two nights in Massey College. Anyone who wants to come and witness this extraordinary effort is free to do so, to walk out ,or stay and be, --l ike me -- enthralled. The evening is part rant, part acting tour-de-force, part comedy, part tragedy, part life story. I will be there both nights and look forward to welcoming anyone else who may want to come. No RSVP needed. This is an event. Just turn up if you care to.

You might also want to check out the website: <http://www.twoletters.ca>
John Fraser