This Play Contains Multitudes...

“The play is like a set of Russian nesting dolls…”

That’s what Ashlie said after the stumble-through that capped off our first two weeks of rehearsal for Kiss, opening March 28 at Canadian Stage.

And it’s true. When our companies first chose to do this play together, I thought of it more like a series of dizzying “zoom outs,” where every shift means we see more of the picture, or that a wider editorial layer is exposed. That the experience of watching the play would be the theatrical equivalent of vertigo.

But the notion of nesting dolls is closer. Each segment brings us in, it brings us closer to some core, some kind of truth, some kind of understanding - without ever fully reaching that understanding.

And let it be known: this play contains multitudes. As the characters struggle to understand the world within this play, every one in the room wrestles in parallel with the play itself. It’s a melodrama. It’s psychological realism. It’s funny. It’s deadly serious. And it’s a game of cultural telephone. It’s a Syrian play. Sort of. Written by a Chilean man. Who now lives in New York. Originally commissioned by a German company in Düsseldorf. Interpreted here and now by us. An assembly of Canadian theatre makers who want to honour to every level of this complicated, multinational fabric, while also fully kicking ass punk-rock-theatre-style.

An admission: I’m being a bit coy. I’m talking around the play rather than about it. There are surprises hidden in this one. No spoilers! #nospoilers

So. Two weeks of smart, solid work wrapped. Now we let the work lay fallow for a month, leaving time and space in which the thing can grow and change and deepen. Then we tear back into the belly of this wild, incredible beast of a play. I have a funny feeling you’ll love it.

- Chris