I dream of Anna
Persephone Productions debut with Tolstoy's Karenina
by AMY BARRATT
"I haven't done theatre for a while without a mask," admits Anana Rydva1d, who is about to appear, barefaced, as the title character in Persephone Productions'Anna Karenina.
Rydvald is one of the founders of Mask On!, a company that has done very well at the last two Fringe Festivals. She was also there at the inception last January of Persephone Productions, founded by her former teacher (at John Abbott College), Gabrielle Soskin.
It's the kind of initiative the English theatre scene is seeing more and more of, the most high-profile example being the Montreal Young Company, founded last year by Bill Glassco.
"We -Glassco and myself- see our students and wonder what's going to happen to them," says Soskin. "We want them to be able to work, to be able to stay in Montreal."
Soskin admits to feeling "not jealous, but envious" when she first heard of Glassco's project, but says it gave her the push she needed to carry out a dream she had harboured for decades: starting her own company. One that would draw heavily on the talents of students who had passed through the doors of her classroom over the years.
The choice of a first play wasn't difficult. Soskin had been wanting to work on Anna Karenina ever since reading British playwright Helen Edmundson's adaptation of the Tolstoy novel, 18 months before.
Like the novel, the play has two contrasting storylines, represented by Anna and Levin. The two serve as narrators and participants in the action which, in the play, is non-chronological. There is no attempt at scenery in this production. Instead, the script "asks the actors to create the place, the weather, everything," says Soskin.
Rydvald jumped at the chance to play Anna Karenina, the actress says, even though it scared her.
"Sometimes I feel like it's me standing up there. It's so raw. And then the style is so minimalist compared to what I've done."
Persephone Productions, assuming that Anna Karenina is enough of a success for them to go on, can be expected to present plays with strong women characters and possibly even a feminist slant. Edmundson's play brings that perspective to Tolstoy, says Soskin. "When Anna falls in love, she not only discovers her sexuality, she discovers what she really is. It unlocks what she would like to be in life, whereas up until then she had been locked into a role dictated by her gender."
Persephone Productions is named after the Greek goddess who spent half of the year in the Underworld, causing the onset of winter. It's a good metaphor for the process of making theatre: you work away in the "dark"-the rehearsal period is a mystery to most people- and then emerge into the light to reveal what you've become.
Reprinted from The Montreal Mirror, September 2000.
"I haven't done theatre for a while without a mask," admits Anana Rydva1d, who is about to appear, barefaced, as the title character in Persephone Productions'Anna Karenina.
Rydvald is one of the founders of Mask On!, a company that has done very well at the last two Fringe Festivals. She was also there at the inception last January of Persephone Productions, founded by her former teacher (at John Abbott College), Gabrielle Soskin.
It's the kind of initiative the English theatre scene is seeing more and more of, the most high-profile example being the Montreal Young Company, founded last year by Bill Glassco.
"We -Glassco and myself- see our students and wonder what's going to happen to them," says Soskin. "We want them to be able to work, to be able to stay in Montreal."
Soskin admits to feeling "not jealous, but envious" when she first heard of Glassco's project, but says it gave her the push she needed to carry out a dream she had harboured for decades: starting her own company. One that would draw heavily on the talents of students who had passed through the doors of her classroom over the years.
The choice of a first play wasn't difficult. Soskin had been wanting to work on Anna Karenina ever since reading British playwright Helen Edmundson's adaptation of the Tolstoy novel, 18 months before.
Like the novel, the play has two contrasting storylines, represented by Anna and Levin. The two serve as narrators and participants in the action which, in the play, is non-chronological. There is no attempt at scenery in this production. Instead, the script "asks the actors to create the place, the weather, everything," says Soskin.
Rydvald jumped at the chance to play Anna Karenina, the actress says, even though it scared her.
"Sometimes I feel like it's me standing up there. It's so raw. And then the style is so minimalist compared to what I've done."
Persephone Productions, assuming that Anna Karenina is enough of a success for them to go on, can be expected to present plays with strong women characters and possibly even a feminist slant. Edmundson's play brings that perspective to Tolstoy, says Soskin. "When Anna falls in love, she not only discovers her sexuality, she discovers what she really is. It unlocks what she would like to be in life, whereas up until then she had been locked into a role dictated by her gender."
Persephone Productions is named after the Greek goddess who spent half of the year in the Underworld, causing the onset of winter. It's a good metaphor for the process of making theatre: you work away in the "dark"-the rehearsal period is a mystery to most people- and then emerge into the light to reveal what you've become.
Reprinted from The Montreal Mirror, September 2000.
