THE AGE OF AROUSAL
by LINDA GRIFFITHS
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VUE WEEKLY Preview
by Mel Priestley
http://www.vueweekly.com/the_age_of_arousal/
Tempestuous socio-sexual changes roiling just under the surface of those tight-laced Victorian bodices—it’s the heart of playwright Linda Griffiths’ Age of Arousal, and it’s what co-producers The Maggie Tree and Blarney Productions envisioned while working on their upcoming iteration of the show.
“It’s a really sexy play,” says Maggie Tree founder and actress Kristi Hansen, who plays protagonist Rhoda. “An image that we have used a lot is the image of bursting out of the corset: that’s sort of what’s going on at the time and in the play as well.”
Age of Arousal follows Rhoda’s story as an “odd” woman in 1885 London, where for various reasons that include the effects of war, rampant alcoholism and disease, the ratio of women to men was nearly four to one—so many women remained unmarried and were thus unpaired, or odd. Together with her lover Mary Barfoot (Sandra Nicholls), Rhoda runs a secretarial school for other odd women, a background against which the play depicts a fundamental sea change within women’s traditional roles as wives and mothers.
As director Wayne Paquette describes, playwright Linda Griffiths was “wildly inspired by” an 1893 novel by George Gissing titled The Odd Women.
“One of the great things that [Griffiths] has done in this play is she’s coined this phrase called ‘thoughtspeak,’” Paquette says. “We get to see two characters dialoguing, and then also they go into their inner thoughts; we see their inner thoughts explored and talked about on stage. It’s an interesting dynamic of how we present ourselves but also how we’re feeling inside and what that really means to us.”
From the synopsis alone, it’s clear that the script is rife with competing gender politics, something particularly poignant for Hansen’s company, and especially for this particular co-production with a male director. The Maggie Tree’s mandate is to support the development and visibility of women in creative leadership roles in the arts, and Hansen admits to relishing the various contradictions within feminism as well as the run-ins she’s had with the same.
“You get told certain things—you’re not a good feminist if you do that, you’re not a good feminist if you do this; I just think that’s a really interesting part of the movement, in that it’s such in flux, it’s always changing—we’re always asking questions within it,” she notes.
From Paquette’s perspective as a male director working alongside this feminist rhetoric, he notes that there are other avenues of engaging with the piece.
“I’ve tried to approach this on a very personal level, so that these are individuals,” he says. “And I think [Griffiths] is very smart to not make this sort of a slogan piece. It’s about six people and their personal struggles. Each one of them is in a stage of transition. Their ideals, their beliefs are being challenged, and they’re not skirting but they’re going to an edge where they’re now seeing the other side of things; they’re seeing the world in a bigger way.
“No matter where you are in your life, no matter who you are, woman or man, no matter what’s going on in the background, you still have your own personal responsibility to yourself and what you want to do, what you want to contribute to life, to this world,” he continues. “These are just people who are trying to find their place in the world.”
ST. ALBERT GAZETTE Preview
by Anna Borowiecki
http://www.stalbertgazette.com/article/20130306/SAG0302/303069990/0/SAG
Age of Arousal channels sexual energy and feminist zeal
Just the title ‘Age of Arousal’ hints at the lush eroticism of carnal love. Just how bacchanalian the latest Maggie Tree production is will be revealed at tomorrow’s opening night at C103, formerly Catalyst Theatre.
In this Edmonton premiere of Age of Arousal, playwright Linda Griffiths takes theatergoers to 1885 London, England. It was an odd moment in history in post-emigration Britain when women outnumbered men by 500,000 leaving many single women out of the matrimonial circle.
“The imbalances started to ask questions about female sexuality. Is sexual energy only for men, or is it allowed for women?” says Maggie Tree co-founder Vanessa Sabourin, a former St. Albert Children’s Theatre actress.
Now a Calgary resident and artistic director for Urban Curves, Sabourin is wearing the producer’s hat for this production.
Griffiths concocts a six-character show centred on Mary (Sandra Nicholls), an ex-suffragette who runs a philanthropic school for secretaries with her teacher-lover, Rhoda (Kristi Hansen). Rhoda bumps into an old friend Virginia and discovers she and her sister are living in poverty. Rhoda invites them to the school for secretaries to learn a few skills.
Bu there are bumps in this well-laid plan. Either the sisters are incompetent typists or they are focused on the sexual revolution. Everard Barfoot (Jessie Gervais), Mary’s cousin, an ex-doctor enters just before he is about to embark on a life of leisure. Almost immediately there is a role reversal and the sexy ensemble erupts with new discoveries.
“Linda does a wonderful job of combining modern sensibilities with 1800 styles. The images of bodice-ripping run right through.”
Sabourin and Hansen jointly conceived Maggie Tree as a company that would give leadership roles to women and tell women’s stories from the female perspective.
Up until now women have directed all productions. Wayne Paquette, artistic director of Blarney Productions brought Age of Arousal to the company’s attention.
“We loved the script and were surprised nobody was picking it up.”
Instead of directing it, the Sabourin-Hansen team handed the directorial reins to Paquette.
“Wayne is a director of great sensitivity and skill. Because Wayne is a super artist and has a real passion for the script he was the obvious choice. Why should it be only women supporting the agenda? By including men, it makes it a two-way dialogue, not just one perspective.”
For Sabourin, the play is summed up as being true to yourself.
“It has elements of farce. It’s bright, enlivening and full of tension. It’s a very funny piece and people will enjoy it. It’s a risky piece but that’s what drew us to it.”
All photos by Marc J. Chalifoux
Blarney Productions 