From press release
VOLCANO Theatre presents Goodness
Written by Michael Redhill, Directed by Ross Manson
Starring Layne Coleman, Lili Francks, Tara Hughes, JD Nicholsen, Gord Rand and Amy Rutherford
The only Canadian play to win the Carol Tambor Theatrical Foundation’s "Best of Edinburgh" Award, Michael Redhill’s Goodness is a searing journey into history, memory and morality that examines life, love and personal responsibility in the face of genocide.
Completely reworked since its 2005 premiere in a co-production with Tarragon Theatre, Volcano Theatre presents this gripping work, opening September 16 and running through September 27, at The Theatre Centre, after which it will travel directly to Butare, Rwanda as part of the commemorations of the 15th anniversary of the genocide there. After debuting in Butare, the Volcano team will also play Kigali, and offer a series of workshops.
Directed by Volcano Artistic Director Ross Manson, this version of the play – on a bare stage with few props – has carried Goodness to great acclaim around the world, including lauded runs in New York, Helsinki, Edinburgh and Vancouver, and now to Rwanda’s International Arts Azimut festival.
Starring Layne Coleman, Lili Francks, Tara Hughes, JD Nicholsen, Gord Rand and Amy Rutherford, Redhill’s complex work is a multi-layered exploration of genocide laced with choral music from around the world.
Michael, a Toronto Jewish playwright (Rand), is in search of answers to the slaughter of his great-grandparents and five of their children in the Holocaust. He drops into a seedy London bar for a quick beer and is handed a phone number by a stranger. He calls it. An hour later, he’s in a woman’s apartment (Francks), listening to an astonishing story: murder, war crimes, love. She tells him a story of a man she once guarded – a man thought to have orchestrated a killing-spree in her country – but whose memory has disappeared.
Through an intricate knot of flashbacks and storytelling, time-shifting tales-within-tales, with actors stepping in and out of roles, critically acclaimed novelist Michael Redhill explores what it means to tell, or even know, the truth, and who is able to tell the truth to another.
As the play itself asks: "Why do good people rush to do evil? And what do they become?" From Pinochet to Saddam Hussein, from Yugoslavia to Sudan and Rwanda, Goodness resonates deeply with today’s world.
"Michael Redhill’s gripping and important play… has the intimacy and discordant reach of a late Beethoven string quartetŠ the clarity of Mr. Redhill’s language, the economy of Ross Manson’s direction and the excellent cast Š succeed in dramatizing its complexities Š hauntingŠ shocking." – The New York Times, March 7, 2007
"This explosive play, its European premiere presented by Canada’s enterprising Volcano Theatre, has genuine emotional texture, is rich in complexity, quirkiness and surprise, Š I doubt if there will be a more gripping theatrical experience than Goodness at Edinburgh this year." ¬ – The Independent (UK) Thurs, Aug 21, 2006
Ross Manson is an actor, director, and translator, and the founding Artistic Director of Volcano. Winner of a KM Hunter Award (for theatre), his selected productions directed for Volcano include: The Four Horsemen Project, created and directed with Kate Alton (Dora Awards for Outstanding Play, Production, Direction, and Lighting); Variété at the Gladstone Hotel (1 Dora Award, 5 nominations); Two Words for Snow (Richard Sanger) at Artword Theatre (3 Dora Awards, 6 nominations, Governor General’s Award nomination); and Building Jerusalem, by Michael Redhill (Dora Awards for Outstanding Play and Production, Chalmers New Canadian Play Award, Governor General’s Award nomination). Ross has also directed for the Blyth Festival and Canadian Stage.
As well as Goodness, Michael Redhill is the internationally acclaimed and award-winning author of the novel Martin Sloan, the Chalmers and Dora Award-winning play Building Jerusalem, and Light-crossing and Lake Nora Arms, both collections of poetry. His most recent novel, Consolation, won the City of Toronto Book Award, and was long-listed for the 2007 Man Booker Prize.
VOLCANO Theatre presents Goodness
Written by Michael Redhill, Directed by Ross Manson
Starring Layne Coleman, Lili Francks, Tara Hughes, JD Nicholsen, Gord Rand and Amy Rutherford
Costume Design by Teresa Przybylski, Lighting Design by Rebecca Picherack
Musical Direction by Brenna MacCrimmon, Sound by John Gzowksi,
Stage Managed by Guillaume Houët-Brisebois
Opens Wednesday September 16 through to September 27, 2009
Tues – Sat 7:30pm, Sat and Sun matinees 2:30pm
Tickets: Tues -Thurs & Sun Matinee $20; Fridays, Saturdays $25 ($20 senior/student/CAEA/CADA);
Sat 2:30PM matinee PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN
The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen Street West
Tickets and Info www.volcano.ca OR 416 538 0988