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Culture Stage

The Campbell House Story

THE CAMPBELL HOUSE STORY by Alex Dault, directed by Lee Wilson, with Andy Perun, Thomas Gough, Carter Hayden, Jenny Ryan, Leah Holder and Brandon Crone (Single Theatre Theatre). At Campbell House Museum (160 Queen West). Opens Friday (March 2) and runs to March 17, Tuesday-Sunday 7 and 9 pm. $20. totix.ca. See listing.


Site-specific shows popped up all over the city last fall, in historic buildings, backyard sheds and neighbourhood houses.

Now Single Thread Theatre, whose mandate is to explore history and culture using non-traditional spaces, moves into Campbell House Museum to present a page from that venue’s past involving – and featuring – its original tenant, William Campbell.

“The building at Queen and University fascinates me as a space it’s a bastion of the past surrounded by skyscrapers,” says playwright Alex Dault, author of The Campbell House Story.

After doing some research, Dault discovered that Campbell was the fifth chief justice of Upper Canada, “someone I’d never heard about in my history classes. Yet he played a critical role in pre-Confederation times as the arbiter in what was called the 1827 Types Trial, which involved several young men from the Family Compact trashing journalist William Lyon Mackenzie’s print shop. Mackenzie was an outspoken critic of the well-to-do, politically powerful members of the Compact.”

The trial was a landmark for freedom of the press in Canada and also propelled Mackenzie into the political sphere. He later became a leader in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 and also Toronto’s first mayor.

The show, though, is as much about personal relationships as politics. Campbell’s grandson, Will, is involved with Samuel Jarvis, one of the leaders of the assault on Mackenzie’s shop he also sells information about the Family Compact to Mackenzie. Whose side is he on? A trial involving the chief justice can settle the affair legally, but young Will has to decide who he really supports.

Add a smart maid, some cross-dressing and the Campbell family concern about social status and the result is what Dault calls “a political farce.”

The scenes jump back and forth between the trial (the audience is the jury) and episodes depicting events relevant to the case.

Last October Single Thread staged a site-specific production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at Spadina House, updating the material to the First World War. It was a great learning experience for the company, since the large house and extensive grounds made for a lot of travelling.

“I realized that the trick is to sustain the narrative even when everyone’s moving,” smiles Dault, a George Brown Theatre grad. “You can’t let viewers fall out of the world of the play, no matter how visually stimulating the environment is. For The Campbell House Story, which can only accommodate an audience of 25, I want to up the ante, make the story the most important aspect of the production.

“It’s partly a matter of keeping the dialogue going while the audience goes from room to room.”

Some of the characters are drawn from history, while others are fictional.

“Though Will is real, he’s only a footnote in the records here he’s the main character. Because we’re working in a museum setting, I feel a pressure not to make up history. Everything that happens is plausible.”

Dault admits that he’s injected the comedy – “my go-to style” – to make the history more interesting. “So many people find Canadian history tedious, but Michael Hollingsworth has proven that doesn’t have to be the case.”

Historical footnote: Thomas Gough, who plays Campbell, is a descendant of one of the men who trashed Mackenzie’s shop.

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