A Struggle of Conscience
Tony Nardi Confronts Stereotyping in Canadian Theatre
By Ayah Victoria McKhail
Actor Tony Nardi didn’t set out on a mission to shake
up Canada’s theatre establishment; it just happened. The
impetus? In 1994 and 1995 two comedies were being produced for
television and he was offered parts. The roles: Italian guys.
The scripts were rife with references that would have depicted
him as that stereotypical Italian we’re all too familiar
with—the ball-scratching kind that’s associated
with mama, macaroni and the mafia. Such auditions have been
standard practice for him throughout his acting career, so what
got Nardi squirming this time around? The roles would have been
an exercise tantamount to self-flagellation had he taken them.Truth
be told, Tony Nardi had accepted such roles earlier on in his
career. Yet a lingering sense of discomfort would always set
in, and Nardi would always end up challenging the cultural stereotypes
embedded in the scripts and characters with writers and producers.
But something was different this time around. After simmering
in his anger and frustration over the years, Nardi hit the boiling
point and was ready to explode. Instead of discharging an emotional
outburst, Nardi wrote a 17-page letter to one of the show’s
casting directors where he methodically outlined his sources
of discontent. When that failed to elicit a response, an infuriated
Nardi took pen to paper once again and wrote a second letter.
The result: A one-man show entitled Two Letters. Here, Nardi
takes his audience on an odyssey where he rants about everything
wrong with Canadian theatre, which he feels has been in festering
in a perpetual state of mediocrity and sorely lacking authenticity.
In Two Letters, what emerges is a damning indictment of several
key players. Nardi goes off on producers and directors who he
feels have compromised the integrity of true theatre and the
authenticity of real characters, replacing them instead with
cartoon-like versions. Perhaps more importantly, Nardi also
criticizes other actors who are unwilling to challenge questionable
practices within the establishment, including their very own
heavily stereotyped roles—roles that they often disagree
with entirely.
In fact, with Two Letters Nardi exposes us to an ironic situation
where these very actors become complicit—whether intentionally
or not—to a situation that is severely eroding away at
the core of what theatre should represent. Truth be told, in
a field as competitive as theatre, actors are often simply elated
at the prospect of a job. When they finally get a break, they’re
loathe to express even the slightest degree of criticism or
dissatisfaction they may have with those at the top.
Rather than taking a firm stance and challenging any perceived
deficiencies within the establishment, actors serve to perpetuate
a problem that, according to Nardi, is only bound to get worse
unless people begin to reclaim the heart and soul of true theatre.
Nardi argues that the theatre establishment must undergo a renaissance
of sorts if it’s to overcome the perpetual state of mediocrity
it’s been festering in.
Erika Batdorf, a playwright, solo performer and an associate
professor in the department of theatre at York University, is
keenly aware of the issues Nardi raises. “The mainstream
theatre community—continuing to be financially challenged—relies
on known and not exactly contemporary works, as their titles
are familiar to audiences and hence easier to market. Those
plays carry outdated roles, few roles for women and visible
minorities.”
But for those actors who actually get a chance to play the role
of a minority, there’s a lot to consider—including
the very real issue of money, which can often trump a person’s
ethics. As Batdorf elucidates, “This requires actors,
who do not create and produce their own work, to respond to
the market. That market is limited; so if you want to work and
get paid, you have some difficult realities to face—limited
and often stereotypical roles.”
This reality resonates for Nardi. But the issues he exposes
us to are multi-faceted. Although he stresses the importance
of actors gaining greater centrality if the current state of
affairs in Canadian theatre is to improve, the audience must
also be taken into consideration—an audience that Nardi
feels has become “professional.”
Nardi argues that today’s audiences don’t have a
genuine interest in the rich, cultural experience that theatre
is supposed to offer. Instead, they’re simply using theatre
as an excuse for a night out. What’s more, there’s
this lingering sense of disengagement between the actors and
the audience rather than a real connection, and the sharing
of a truly intimate experience.
With Two Letters, however, the audience can’t help but
feel a connection. The performance is essentially a rallying
cry by a middle-aged man who admits to having been drawn to
the acting profession as a way to discover greater truths about
the world. Along the way, he also discovered a widespread complacency
that has set in within the business—a complacency that
deeply angered him. And that anger is palpable.
At the November 18 and 19 performances of Two Letters—whose
two parts (“Letter One” and “Letter Two”)
are presented over two days—Nardi’s delivery was
as intense as it was heartfelt. And although he had been performing
Two Letters for several weeks at venues all over Toronto, that
didn’t seem to diminish Nardi’s obvious sense of
anger and resolve on stage this time at the National Film Board’s
screening room. Audience members held on to every single word
as his booming voice filled the theatre. They watched intently
as Nardi stood in the centre of the stage, sweating while his
arms flailed in frustration.
And he has a lot to be frustrated about. As Toronto writer Brian
Fawcett explained in a review on dooneyscafe.com, “What
he’s really angry about is that contemporary film and
television in Canada increasingly operates by this kind of stereotyping,
and that it, among other things, contributes to making our characterizations
of reality smaller and slower than we know they actually are.
He wants to know why this has happened, and what’s going
to happen to us if we continue to let it happen.”
But for Nardi, refusing to play stereotyped caricatures should
go beyond a sense of obligation. Sure, if he were to have followed
through with the character’s portrayal that originally
unleashed this Two Letters firestorm, it would have seriously
compromised his beliefs. But the beliefs of one man are not
the only issues at stake.
Nardi is also keenly aware of the fact that Toronto is one of
the most culturally-diverse cities in the world, so challenging
stereotypes is something that other communities here are also
working towards. As a result, there’s an implicit understanding
that there is a common struggle for many different minority
groups to gather around—banning together in a struggle
that’s very much real.
Cynthia Ashperger, program director of Acting at Ryerson University,
is just one person who can identify with this struggle. She
found “Letter One” especially poignant, saying,
“It touched me deeply and on a very personal level.”
In fact, the Croatia-born actor identifies strongly with Nardi’s
experiences. “I have auditioned and played a lot of accented
parts and many of these are often not leading roles or even
principal parts. Many are tiny roles written as stereotypes.
Not all of them, of course.
On occasion some of these parts can be interesting to play.
But for the most part, they’re an afterthought and often
very similar. The names of these characters can illustrate my
point. I have a Polish actor friend who has told me that one
year he auditioned for over ten Vlads. And I’ve had my
share of Natashas, personally.”
While many actors and audience members have lauded Nardi’s
readings of Two Letters as an incredibly courageous act, he
doesn’t exactly agree. “Given that we live in a
democracy, I wouldn’t call myself courageous…. I
think raising a child and feeding a child is courageous,”
he says, referring to his young son, 4-year-old Francis Ellington
Nardi, who influenced some of the content in “Letter One.”
“Having a child is a daily lesson. It’s too overwhelming
to put into words. It just heightens your senses.”
Fatherhood has indeed only further inspired Nardi to exemplify
two values he’s trying to impart to his son: integrity
and honesty. In the near future, this might even help his son
avoid experiencing theatre the way Nardi sees people experiencing
it today—numbly and with a lack of authenticity.
When asked why people should listen to what he says in Two Letters,
Nardi responds without hesitation: “They shouldn’t
have to. I’m just sharing, and just as I have the right
to say it, others have the right to voice their disagreement
with me. As Voltaire once said, “I disapprove of what
you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
With a smile he adds, “This is just a prologue to a debate.”
This article appeared in partners, the official magazine of
the Italian Chamber of Commerce of Toronto, Volume 5 - Issue
2 – Spring 2007
