Modern Times Stage Company
Vladimir and Estragon are back in Toronto! In his March 2008
production of Beckett’s contemporary classic Waiting for
Godot, Modern Times Stage Company’s Artistic Director Soheil
Parsa puts Didi and Gogo on a round lopsided stage – “the
shape reflects the dialogical loop of the play” -- with
barely any other props but the Tree and the projected moon. “I
wanted to add sound, kind of an audio wall of human breath, but
the Beckett Estate was adamant that there be no sound in the play.
Another idea that I had to abandon was casting a woman as ‘Lucky.’
However, these narrowed-down choices opened up new possibilities
with what we had on hand.”
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Modern Times Stage Company (l-r: Peter
Farbridge (Vladimir), Stewart Arnott (Pozzo) and Peter Batakliev
(Estragon).
Photo by Guy Bertrand |
Parsa is no stranger to the essentials-only policy – in
one form or other, it has been an important part of Modern Times’
aesthetics from company’s early days. Sometimes this will
mean that the same actor plays more than one character; or that
a character’s status is conveyed through a discreet symbol
rather than elaborate pageantry; or even that a cumbersome undramatic
speech may be cut from the original text. Although he’s
been influenced by Japanese Noh theatre and Iranian passion plays,
Parsa feels most at home in European theatrical avant-garde of
the twentieth century. He first became familiar with the modern
classics while living in pre-Islamic Revolution Tehran. “I
am interested in theatre that speaks about human condition across
national and religious differences”, explains Parsa. The
company’s repertoire includes contemporary Iranian playwrights
Bahram Beyza’i and Mohammad Rahmanian as well as Ionesco,
Genet and Beckett. They all speak to what Parsa does not hesitate
to describe as universal themes: human helplessness and solitude;
the mystery of existence and search for salvation. “Each
nation has its own Macbeths. Wherever we stage our Macbeth
or any other of our plays, the works seem to have been written
with those particular local circumstances in mind”.
Parsa moved to Canada and Toronto in 1984, after free artistic
activity found itself banned in his native Iran. During a period
of political thaw in 2002/03 Modern Times managed to take Aurash,
the play which critically re-examines the notions of national
belonging and heroism, to Tehran. The company hasn’t been
to Iran before or since, but Aurash continues its international
life with the Bosnian version now in the making. The play will
open in Mostar in the summer of 2009, and promises to engage the
locals of all ethnicities in a theatrical dialogue.
The city of Toronto remains Modern Times’ home and base.
With the company’s 33 Dora Awards and nominations, Soheil
Parsa’s personal recognition (a Chalmers Fellowship, New
Pioneers Award and The Siminovitch Prize shortlist) and sold out
performances, there is no doubt that both Toronto critics and
audiences have embraced the company.
Parsa points out another connection between Modern Times and Beckett
and his tramps – or what we would call today the displaced
and the underemployed. “Beckett always thought that the
best casting for Didi and Gogo would have been Charlie Chaplin
and Buster Keaton. Chaplin’s Modern Times is one
of my favourite works of art, so when we were looking for the
name for the new company, Modern Times sounded like the perfect
fit.”
Lydia Perovic
