2011 Production
COMA UNPLUGGED

PRODUCTION BLOG

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Host: Mike Finnerty
Interviewer: Jeanette Kelly
Interviewee: Zach Fraser

JK: ...I at was also yesterday afternoon up at the Conservertoire d'art dramatique because there are a couple of things I've been looking at and hearing about and wanted to check out a bit. A couple of English Theatre productions that I thought we could talk about. The one I went to yesterday at the Conservatoire--this was the dress rehearsal for a show called Coma Unplugged created by Talisman Theatre. Talisman Theatre is a group set up specifically to create in English, contemporary Quebec plays, so they organize to get them translated, and then they produce them. So this is something written by Pierre-Marc Tremblay, Coma Unplugged, translated by Micheline Cheverier and Directed by a guy from Nova Scotia who went to France and now is here in Montreal and specializes in puppetry, actually, Zach Fraser. So, story in a nutshell: A recently divorced humour columnist [Daniel, played by Eloi ArchanBaudoin], accidentally or not, rides his bicycle into a truck, and he's in a coma taking the time to think about his life. So its a quite a humerous reflection on contemporary life from the point of view of a man, especially what's a guy supposed to do, and his testosterone pal [Roger, played by Donovan Reiter] comes in with a rifle, and his warrior pal comes in [Ishouad, played by Chimwemwe Miller]. So there's lots of fantasy in it, but Zach Fraser says that's part of the idea of bringing what's French into the English Theatre Scene.

ZF: In a way it's a step away from some of the other material that Talisman has covered up until now. It's very much a comedy and a lot of the themes so far for Talisman have been rather dramatic by comparison. It is, however, a dark comedy. But there area couple of things that are important for Talisman Theatre: one is the aesthetic. You could say that there are different aesthetics that are explored often in French versus in English, and in particular, Pierre-Michel Tremblay's writing... he's very fantastical. It's surreal in a way. There's very truthful characters but in a very playful world that's fun for us to explore.

MF: Reimagining the male mid-life crisis... a lot of that happens in Quebec actually.

JK: Absolutely. Young male mid-life crisis. A kind of Occupy Wall Street mid-life crisis.

MF: Okay [laughing]. And you have tickets to give away...

For comments or information :
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Page last updated on 04-06-2011