It’s a sunny Sunday morning outside Neptune Theatre’s
carpentry shop, an inconspicuous spot tucked away on Creighton Street
in north end Halifax. With the smell of sawdust mingling with the
freshness of spring’s potential, a group of volunteers work together
lugging carefully crafted rectangular flats of wood—there are 52 of
them in all, each 14 feet tall—from the shop and into the back of a
waiting truck. Their final destination is Dartmouth’s Alderney Landing
Theatre, where they’ll be assembled into the set for Homage, the
latest play by 2b theatre company.
Even playwright and 2b’s co-director Anthony Black, surveying the
maneuvering, admits he was surprised by the scale of the set,
especially as he wraps his head around getting it installed in the
theatre—a venture he says will require the lifting of each flat over
the balcony’s rails in order to squeeze them into the performance
space. But it’ll be well worth it. Once installed, the pieces will form
an 80-seat theatre-in-the-round built to feel like a monumental wooden
sculpture; one that the audience will be seated inside. It will be a
fitting experience.
After all, Homage is a play about the value of art, the
question of legacy and (surprise!) public sculpture. It’s based on the
true story of Haydn Llewellyn Davies, a Canadian sculptor who came to
art-making in his 50s after leaving a successful career as an
advertising executive. Black was inspired to write the play after
reading a Globe and Mail article in 2005 about Davies, who was
then embroiled in a dispute over one of his public sculptures.
Polishing off plates of eggs and large mugs of coffee at a crowded
Halifax breakfast spot, Black and co-artistic producer Christian Barry,
who also co-directed the play, laugh as they think back on their
decision to contact Davies and tell him about their idea of putting his
story on the stage. “We Googled his phone number,” says Barry,
remembering the call, “we had total butterflies in our stomachs.”
Fortunately, Davies, who was in his 80s at the time, was keen on the
idea. He, Black and Barry then met in Toronto, where they talked for
hours over tea.
But it wasn’t until early 2007 that the plans for Homage really kicked into high gear. Black and Barry were at Stratford when
they ran into the guy in charge of new play development. “He asked us
what we were up to,” says Black, “and suggested working with us on one
of our projects.” That soon got them an invitation to workshop an idea.
“And that,” laughs Black, “meant I really had to write a draft.”
Because sculpture is at the heart of Homage, the duo later
approached architect Peter Blackie for ideas about how to integrate a
sculptural element into the set design. “The challenge was to come up
with a piece that would support the subject matter of the play, but
walk a fine line where it didn’t defuse any power of the play,” says
Blackie, who had done some film production work but had barely dabbled
in set design. The team settled on a Stonehenge-inspired abstract
design made of wood that would achieve the magnitude the plot required,
but which could still read as fragile and transparent when lit from
behind.
“It was really the idea of permanence and impermanence,” says
Blackie, gesturing at a delicate drawing of the impressive set in his
notebook, “that was the real idea that we worked with.”
Steering the conversation to avoid giving away the play’s ending,
Barry describes a story that’s firmly based in questions of art
ownership and legacy. “It touches on themes of what we leave
behind…and what we expect to leave behind, not just as artists, but
as people, whether it’s art…or children. It’s a play about man versus
time, in a way. It contextualizes our aspirations to leave something
behind when we’re against the vast and onward march of time.”
“And entropy and the inevitability of decay,” adds Black with a
smile.
As theatre people, both Black and Barry are acutely aware of the
effect of impermanence on their art form, referencing theatre’s
“ephemeral nature,” along with the fleeting nature of art and ideas.
“The event really only lasts for an hour and a half, and that’s it,”
says Barry.
“Our only hope for continued existence is for it to live on in the
minds of the audience.” (Laughing about the play’s limited run, Black
jokes, “Talk about impermanence, eh?” quickly adding that he hopes the
play will have a touring life.)
Homage‘s world premiere will feature performances by David
Hughes as Davies and Barbara Gordon as his wife, Eva, along with Hugh
Thompson, Ann-Marie Kerr, Gordon Gammie, Hugo Dann and Karen Basset
playing a community of more than 20 characters. Unfortunately, Haydn
Davies won’t be in the audience on opening night. In an unexpected plot
twist, he died last March at age 86 from complications related to liver
and lung cancer. Perfect Homage, however, will still be paid.
Homage, March 22-29 at Alderney Landing
Theatre. Show dates, times and tickets at 2btheatre.com.
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2009.