the MICHAEL MCMANUS CARNAVAL THEATER PAGE
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CARNAVAL
Directed by Mitch Miyagawa, at the Nakai Theater in May of 2007
Carnaval
Michael as Ernesto
A Nakai and Gwaandak co-production by Mitch
Miyagawa.
Synopsis
Lucky Feet, a young silver miner, dreams of
dancing in the Carnaval. All he has to do is make a deal with the King of the
Underworld and stop his father's revolution, and his dream will come true. Carnaval:
where tragedy is beautiful, and sadness is celebrated.
Carnaval is the result of an intensive
collaborative process between physical performers, playwright, and director. The
style of the play is based on the principle of making something from nothing.
Performers use very simple props, lighting, and the possibilities of their own
bodies to create an entire world.
Carnaval will take place outdoors at
Raven Recycling - where better to make something from nothing.
Theatre site
Carnaval will be performed on an
outdoor theatre stage eight times this May in the Raven Recycling yard!!! 100
Galena Road, Whitehorse, YT.
Price
Admission is $20
Get tickets
Tickets available at Arts Underground.
Weather
Please check the weather forecast before
coming.
Since the show will be performed outside, be
prepared for possibility of cool temperatures, wind and light rain. In the event
a show is cancelled due to heavy weather, tickets can be refunded, or used at
another show.
For details about weather-related show
cancellations dial: 667 2646.
See this website for up to date information.
Show Dates & Times
Wed. May 16th
(preview)....................................................................................8:00
pm
Thurs. May 17th (premiere)
............................................................................10:30pm
Fri. May
18th.......................................................................................................10:30pm
Sat. May 19th......................................................................................................10:30pm
Wed. May
23rd.....................................................................................................8:00
pm
Thurs. May
24th...................................................................................................8:00
pm
Fri. May
25th......................................................................................................10:30
pm
Sat. May
26th.....................................................................................................10:30
pm
Carnaval Cast
Michael McManus *
Tanya Marquardt
Brian Fidler *
Jude Wong
Dave Haddock
Charlie Wilson
*(appears with the permission of the Canadian Actors' Equity Association)
Carnaval Crew
David Skelton
................................. Director
Dean Eyre
........................................Production Manager
Ryan McCallion
...............................Stage Manager
Veronica Verkley
.............................Set and Prop Design
Alyson Stopps
.................................Costume Design
Paul Lucas
...................................... Music Director/ Composer/ Performer
Heather Jones ............................... Artistic Associate
Bruce Germain ............................... Assistant Production Manager
Joseph Tisiga ................................. Production Assistant
Thanks to our play development partner: Yukon Energy!!!
Page 1REVIEW:
Carnaval
Yukon
News
Wednesday,
May 23, 2007
By
Genesee Keevil News Reporter
Before handing over the program, the usher throws it in the
dirt and stomps on it, raising a little puff of
dust.
“There you go,” he says, picking it up.
“I had to stamp it first.”
If Carnaval’s late show time, the Raven Recycling location
and the portable toilets haven’t already tipped
them off, the dusty footprint on each program is sure to wake
up a Whitehorse audience that rarely gets to
venture beyond the proscenium arch.
Throw in hard hats, a long, dark tunnel to the stage and
scrap-metal effigies and Whitehorse disappears.
For that matter, so does the territory.
Hidden behind walls of bundled cardboard and crushed pop
bottles in Raven’s dusty salvage yard lies a
perfectly constructed piece of the Third World.
A steaming pot in the middle of the tiny South American
square is full of stewed fruit and syrupy liquid.
Audience members help themselves, before settling onto old
car benches, discarded wheelchairs and plastic
school seats.
The regular buzz that usually fills a theatre before the
curtain rises is absent.
After pulling blankets over knees, zipping up parkas, and
swatting a few mosquitoes, people take time to
quietly look around and admire Veronica Verkley’s set.
It is dumbfounding.
Crushed green pop bottles form a striking fanlight above one
of the entrances, while a spray of wire crowns
a bent wheelbarrow throne.
Little white lights hang above the square and the setting sun
catches the coloured plastic.
Add Paul Lucas playing original compositions on guitar,
mandolin and garbage and the audience has
already been transported to South America before the
performance even begins.
So when the narrator, Bolivia (Dave Haddock) walks in towing
a little cart piled with what looks like
battered tin breadboxes, he suits the set so well it takes a
minute to notice him.
Offering more cups of hot, thick juice, he wanders through
the crowd challenging the confines of
conventional theatre.
But there is no sense that Haddock is acting.
In a tattered velour skirt and bowler hat, it would have been
easy to ham it up a little and clown around, but
he doesn’t.
Starting on the right note, Haddock’s flawless performance
carries the whole production.
Page 2At one point his attentive narrator even morphs into a
llama. And Haddock is so utterly convincing as the
furry, spitting beast that he successfully highlights a
riotously funny bit of absurdity that could easily have
been lost.
Climbing a wall of baled cardboard at the start of the play,
Bolivia pulls on a long, white-tarp apron and
becomes the Mountain of Stars. (That same tarp later becomes
a wedding gown and bedding, which, in
keeping with the recycling theme, is a nice touch.)
The townspeople have been mining stars for decades, he
explains, pulling the tarp away to reveal a green
glowing tunnel of bottles.
Enter Chivito (Tanya Marquardt) a young boy who brings lunch
to his father Ernesto (Michael McManus),
a miner and revolutionary.
Tall and lanky, Marquardt gives Chivito the right amount of
masculine charm, but her performance initially
lacks earnestness.
Already jaded, Marquardt’s Chivito makes dangerous deals
with El Tio, god of the miners, with an ease
that verges on cavalier.
However, as Chivito’s experiences age him and the play
progresses, Marquardt grows into the role.
Chivito dreams of dancing in the Carnaval, and to do so, he
promises El Tio (Charlie Wilson) he’ll
undermine his father’s revolution.
It’s an interesting premise, and Mitch Miyagawa’s writing
gives the play an original, poetic and haunting
appeal.
Unfortunately, extraneous stage business often interferes
with his writing.
The dialogue and narrative are regularly interrupted by
movement and dance numbers that fall flat and
remain awkwardly out of place.
As a result, the story is often hard to follow.
Throw in director David Skelton’s penchant for cross-gender
casting and the result could be mayhem.
But this stretch works.
As Fernanda, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, Brian
Fidler establishes some beautiful moments.
Fernanda’s tentative attempts at a first kiss with Chivito
are so engaging the audience completely forgets it
is a man playing a woman and a woman playing a man.
However, after setting the bar, Fidler has some trouble
maintaining it, at times falling back on cute but less
sincere female mannerisms.
Playing God and El Tio, Wilson’s conviction and intense
physicality suit her roles and allow her to pull off
some otherwise over-the-top reactions.
And while Jude Wong made a decent Don Jamie, Fernanda’s
wealthy father, her fondness for movement
often distract from the believability of her characters.
For much of the production, McManus plays Ernesto as a stock,
Che Guevara-loving communist blinded by
his dreams of revolution.
Page 3And it’s not until he dons the role of a homeless
beggar that McManus’ talent truly shines, as he curls up on
a bail of cardboard with just the right amount of spindly
pain and trepidation.
The worn jeans and muted colours of Alyson Stopps’ costumes
add to the production as a whole, leading
the cast away from South American stereotypes and into the
reality of Third World slums.
Despite the production’s confusing storyline, much of which
is cleared up rather hurriedly at the end,
Carnaval offers a host of beautiful moments.
There’s Ernesto scratching a flower in the dirt as he
remembers his dead wife, a tear running down
Chivito’s cheek when he learns his father has died and
Bolivia describing El Tio with “ a mouth full of
knives,” and “eyebrows on fire.”
And not all movement is gratuitous.
A soundscape created by the actors and Lucas as Chivito
dances lends credence to the lure of South
America’s carnivals, and a gut-wrenching fight scene leaves
the audience visibly shaken.
Carnaval is “where tragedy is beautiful and sadness is
celebrated,” the program tells the audience.
Nakai and Gwaandak Theatre took a risk, staging the
production at Raven, outside both traditional
theatrical conventions and in the elements.
It works.
One of the most innovative and beautiful pieces of theatre to
come out of Whitehorse in the last three years,
this is a production that shouldn’t be missed.
REVIEW FROM GWAANDAK THEATER SOCIETY AND YUKON NEWS:
http://www.gwaandaktheatre.com/
