For maximum farce, The Wedding Party demands precision from its quick-changing cast
Credit to Author: Shawn Conner| Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2020 19:00:02 +0000
The Wedding Party
When: Feb. 27-March 22
Where: Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre
Tickets: from $29 at artsclub.com
When director Anne Hodgins was casting The Wedding Party, she knew she had to find actors who could go the distance — and change multiple times while doing it.
“When I was doing auditions, I was like, ‘We need actors who are the equivalent of Olympic athletes,’” she said. ”I’m not just talking physically. That is the level of skill that we need. This play demands super-precision onstage but also the ability to walk offstage and really quickly change and then walk back out onstage, and remain calm throughout the whole process.”
In The Wedding Party, six actors play over 20 different characters who are attending a wedding no one really wants to be at. With the newlyweds absent from the stage, the play focuses on their two families and their mutual antagonism as moms get drunk, ex-wives show up, and dads get into fights.
Todd Thomson plays the father of the groom, Jack Senior. “They (the bride and groom) didn’t even want to have a wedding,” the Vancouver-based actor said. “They’re doing it to please their family. So it’s very fitting we don’t see them. And Jack Sr. is exploiting the wedding as an opportunity to say what a great guy he is. I would say he’s not a real fan of Jack Jr.’s new bride or her family.” Thompson also plays Jack’s twin brother, Tony.
“Jack is 22 seconds older than Tony, which, I quote, ‘is an eternity in twin years.’ So he casts a long shadow.”
Playwright Kristen Thomson (yes, there is a relation — she and Todd are siblings) developed the characters with five actors for productions at Toronto’s Crow’s Theatre, where it was so well received that the theatre brought it back the following year. That was followed by a 2019 run at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and one at Winnipeg’s Prairie Theatre Exchange.
Hodgins directed the Winnipeg production, which was a co-presentation of PTE and Arts Club. It’s this co-production, with actors Thompson, Jasmine Chen, Andrea Del Campo, Luisa Jojic, Nancy Sorel, and Cory Wojcik, that is coming to Vancouver.
“There’s a lot of preplanning,” Hodgins said of the challenges she faced. “If I have someone exiting in one location and then entering on the other, and they have to enter in eight seconds, I’ve made it difficult to do a quick-change. So part of is planning the staging so that they have as much time as possible to do the quick changes.”
She worked with Vancouver-based costume designer Christine Reimer to “develop costumes that could function as quick-changes, where one part of one costume can be used as part of another,” she said. “It’s a big logistical puzzle.”
Another challenge was figuring out stage directions. “Because Kristen (Thompson) developed the original production with actors who were going to be in the show, there’s not a lot of indication in the script itself of even when people enter or exit,” she said. “Part of my job is to interpret and go, ‘Wait a minute, this person has to leave here to re-enter there.’” She estimates there are between 40-50 costume/character changes.
“It’s like a piece of music,” Thompson said. “If one entrance is late, or one change is delayed, the whole thing sounds dissonant for a moment. So everyone is absolutely critical to the success of the show.”
The actor recalls his reaction on seeing the Crow’s Nest production, before he was cast. “I literally went, ‘How did they do that?’ It felt like there were 10 or 12 people onstage. It’s a workout for sure.”