STAGE LEFT LOST A Misfit Puzzle
With each of my recent Opera Beyond Words productions, I began not with concept, not with narrative but with place. In Apis, or theTaste of Honey I chose a military brig. In Tick Tack Type it was a typing school. When I began Stage Left Lost I chose the setting of theatre itself.
As I worked on the production, George Cukor’s A Double Life immediately came to mind. In the film, an actor playing Othello is obsessed with jealousy when he suspects his wife of an affair. The jealousy consumes his life onstage and off. I was intrigued by the layers of possibilities but was ultimately disappointed that the film did not deliver all possiblilities.
There are three different realities I see in this concept – the stage, the off-stage and the world outside the theatre. As the form began to reveal itself to me I discovered that I could fashion a piece that would travel in several worlds - actors playing actors, actors playing characters, actors playing characters who are playing other characters. Layers upon layers.
If you like film about theatre or theatre about theatre, I encourage you to take in Stage Left Lost. It’s a play within a play within a play. It’s a puzzle that fits together but shouldn’t. - Opens Nov 4.