THE CHASSE-GALERIE (THE FLYING CANOE) created by the company, directed by Tyrone Savage, with Kat Letwin, Dana Puddicombe, Tess Benger, Shaina Silver-Baird and Jonah Widdifield. Presented by Red One Theatre Collective at the Storefront Theatre (955 Bloor West). December 17-22 and 28-31 at 8 pm. $20-$25. thestorefronttheatre.com.
Red One Theatre Collective, the busiest indie company in Toronto, is in the midst of creating its own version of a Christmas holiday show.
But don’t look for Scrooge or ghosts. Theirs isn’t a Dickensian tale, but rather one that draws on the French-Canadian story of the Chasse-Galerie, the flying canoe that magically transports a group of coureurs de bois from their cabin in the wilderness to Montreal for a night of partying.
The only trouble is that they’ve made a deal with the devil to travel the hundreds of leagues there and back in a single night, and they’ve got to do their best not to lose their souls at the adventure’s end.
“I heard the story from actor Brad Hodder when I worked with him at Stratford,” says director Tyrone Savage. “We were looking at a bottle of Maudite beer from Quebec, which has a picture of the men flying in their canoe and a devil at the bottom of the label.”
Taken with the idea, Savage – a founding member of Red One as well as a regular in Stratford’s acting troupe for the past several years – pitched it to Red One’s Benjamin Blais.
“I was looking for a project,” remembers the director, “and I knew that my father was involved with collectives in the early years of Theatre Passe Muraille. I’d never been part of one, but my parents [actors Booth Savage and Janet-Laine Green, whom he directed in Red One’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? last year] have always encouraged me to make my own work. I’ve never been content to wait for someone to hire me.”
Researching the story, Savage discovered it goes back to old tales of Norse god Odin out hunting on a winter’s eve with his hounds woe betide the humans he discovers in the forest.
“The early Quebec settlers added their Roman Catholicism and the canoes of the natives they met the result was the Chasse-Galerie. What’s especially important in this version of the story is that the men can’t have anything to do with Christianity on their voyage. They can’t touch a cross, a church steeple or swear, which for Quebecers doesn’t mean ‘fuck’ or ‘shit,’ but religious-based words like ‘calisse’ and ‘tabernac.'”
With the help of composer James Smith (Brantwood, Mr. Burns) and puppeteer Daniel Briere (also a Stratford actor friend), Savage has come up with an immersive 90-minute musical that places the audience in The Flying Canoe, an old Montreal pub.
“I love romance and adventure,” he admits, “and I want the viewers to be part of the action, singing songs and cursing along with the characters. The show becomes a participatory New Year’s Eve party.”
His cast includes performers from Shaw, Stratford and the recent production of the musical Once, with the coureurs played by four women. The company created the script collectively through improv, and in writing the coureurs, the actors “shied away from stereotypical female roles. The characters are the tale’s heroes, so their relationships, presented from a unique feminine perspective, are central.”
Savage, passionate as he talks about the show, describes Smith’s music as being “in the folk tradition, from Quebec and the East Coast, the songs arranged as kitchen party music: shout-out-loud and foot-stomping.”
Because the company’s on a shoestring budget and performing in a small space, Briere’s shadow puppetry became a great option for staging the scenes with the enchanted canoe.
“I love fitting shows to the specifics of a venue. Why pretend that we have a million dollars when we can show people what’s going on behind the scenes?
“Puppetry acknowledges that we’re in a play, not reality, and I think that it helps the audience listen to and participate in the storytelling.
“We’re going to wow them with rough magic.”
jonkap@nowtoronto.com | stage@nowtoronto.com
