Glengarry Glen Ross

On Good Friday I went to see Glengarry Glen Ross. Not the movie, the play. It has been playing at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District of Toronto, the space operated by Soulpepper. While I sat looking at the magnificent set (I’m biased, my husband is their head of carpentry, but this set in particular really is quite spectacular) it occurred to me that I was only there for two reasons (beyond the obvious): The lead character, Shelly Levene, was being played by Eric Peterson – a man who has long been a Canadian theatre staple, but whose star has recently risen on the CanCon show Corner Gas – and a movie was made from this play. Those seemed like pretty crappy reasons to get my butt in a seat, but given that the house was packed on **Good Friday** and that the run has been extended due to level of interest, I’m not the only one.

I have never seen this movie, so when husband said that they were doing this at Soulpepper, I demanded tickets (okay, not demanded, but I asked and then kept asking until tickets were secured). But as I sat there in that seat, looking at the set, feeling mildly cold, wondering if I would need to pee before intermission, hoping that I enjoyed it, it occurred to me: I had not been in an actual, physical theatre for almost two years.

For those of you who do not know me, let me provide for you some revisionist history. My mother loved the theatre and had season’s tickets to our local theatre, The Grand, in my hometown. I think it would be safe to say that some of my earliest memories are of being in a theatre. There is something very visceral about being in a theatre and watching live performance. It’s exhilarating to feel the emotions and see the expressions of another person on stage. Equally exhilarating is the feeling you get from the audience around you. There is, quite literally, nothing like it. From that was borne in me an addiction; a fierce, burning addiction to that feeling. In high school I was a ‘drama kid’, largely being a backstage kind of girl (also, having the most intense stage fright). When it came time for university, there was really only one choice for me: Theatre School. Unfortunately, theatre school has a way of beating your love for the art out of you in a quite severe and brutal way. It becomes painfully clear that you will spend your entire life placating artists, living paycheque to paycheque and working stupid hours. After school was over, it was clear that so was my love affair with theatre. What was re-ignited, however, was my intense of love film. What I lost in live theatre, I gained at the movies and realized that I would forever be a patron, never a creator of that kind. But sitting there in that theatre on April 10th I realized something else; that as much as we all love movies – and we do, we really, really do – nothing compares to the real live experience of theatre. While Glengarry Glen Ross can be found at the video store, I’m glad that I experienced it the first time as Mamet intended it, with real, visceral emotions and spittle.

I strongly suggest that you get yourself to a live theatre sometime soon and rediscover where the medium you love so much came from. It’s very enlightening.

**NB: As you may have noticed, my husband does still work in theatre, in fact we met at school, so while *I* fled to a soul crushing desk job, my husband gets up every morning and goes to build sets for what I believe to be the best, most progressive theatre company in Canada. And yes, the b*stard IS one of those people who gets up everyday and is happy with his job. That’s why I blog.**

Check out Soulpepper’s website and, if you can, definitely check out the show. They’ve extended it, Eric Peterson and Albert Schultz (also the theatre’s Artistic Director and all around incredible human being) are incredible, and hey, you can support some amazing local artists.