Interview: Alison Darcy on Scapegoat Carnivale's The Bacchae

intense, dramatic, harsh and notoriously hard to stage

Alison Darcy is a living legacy. She has gone far beyond being the daughter of directors Maurice Podbrey (Centaur founder) and Elsa Bolam (Geordie founder) to becoming one of the finest director/artistic director/actors in the country. Her company, Scapegoat Carnivale, scored huge with their production of Medea, and is once again tackling the Greeks with The Bacchae.

CHARPO: What is your role for this production?

DARCY: My role this time around is solely as producer. It is my first time stepping out of a Scapegoat production creatively. It's a super odd feeling for me. I haven't even been to the rehearsals yet.

CHARPO: The Greeks again...why?

DARCY: We're not done with them. There's too much good stuff there. Andreas and Joe [Shragge, co-translator and co-director for the production] felt compelled to do the script and eager to do another translation of Euripides because he was such a master of pure theatre. Also I think their idea to set it during the Great Awakening is inspired. And we had such a great reception to Medea, I think Montreal audiences are excited to see new interpretations of classics, especially ones not often done. The Greeks are the originators of Western theatre, these are our fairy tales, the founding of the Judeo-Christian theology and our society. What better well to pull from? Maybe a trilogy could be in the making.

The Friday Five, January 14, 2011

The magnificent Joan Orenstein (centre) with Helen Taylor and Aidan Devine in Centaur's production of Juno and the Paycock (photo courtesy of Centaur)

Five (Immediately) Memorable Performances


by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Today we're starting a new weekly feature at CharPo, inspired by the popularity of David Allan King's list, Ten Things Artists Are Sure They Know About Critics and my own list Five (Immediately) Memorable Shows. Each week we'll give you a list of five things; the intent is to provoke discussion or merely be useful. Enjoy (and comment)!


Joan Orenstein (pictured above), People Are Living There, Centaur, 1975. It was my first year as a Centaur subscriber and it wasn't a great year for the old house until this Fugard play in which Orenstein created an indelible memory as a bath-robed, shambling landlady of a flophouse. She was sad, funny and gorgeous. She would dominate Centaur's stage once again, decades later, in Stone Angel.

Jean Archambault, Hosanna, 1978, Festival Lennoxville. I was in Lennoxville negotiating a production of my play and got passes to everything in the fest but this is not only the performance I most remember, it is also one I will never forget. Archambault had created this role in French but the second language did not seem to hinder his subtle, heart-breaking performance as the bitchy but ultimately tragic transvestite. English would not impede him in his performance in the creation of Balconville either.