Revolutions in Therapy
2003–2006
29 pages • Script
Available upon request:
Photo credit: Steve Lucas
Using story, question sessions and video projections, three performers (Nadia Ross, Jacob Wren and Tracy Wright), explore the parallels between the psychotherapeutic enterprise, metaphysical isolation and the nature of performance. The central idea in Revolutions in Therapy is that the practice of meditation and new therapies may offer some kind of perspective on how to cope with a cruel life. This idea is then informed by the fact that the writers, Nadia Ross and Jacob Wren, have opposing opinions on the validity of such a claim. What ensues is an intellectually compact performance piece, where what we share reveals itself as something profoundly moving and impossible to define.
The final production was created in residency at Usine C (Montreal) and premiered as part of the 5th edition (2004) of the Théâtres du Monde event presented by the Festival de Théâtres des Amériques in Montreal.
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Par le biais d’histoires, d’entrevues et de projections vidéo, trois interprètes (Nadia Ross, Jacob Wren et Tracy Wright) explorent les parallèles qui existent entre l’entreprise psychothérapeutique, l‘isolement métaphysique et l’essence de la performance. La prémisse de Revolutions in Therapy est que la pratique de la méditation et des nouvelles thérapies puisse constituer un guide de survie pour quiconque mène une vie difficile. Les auteurs Nadia Ross et Jacob Wren débattent ensuite de la validité de cette hypothèse en invoquant leurs points de vue divergents. S’ensuit alors une performance d’une haute densité intellectuelle lors de laquelle ce qui est exprimé se révèle de façon profondément touchante, tout en étant impossible à définir.
Nadia Ross et Jacob Wren ont développé un langage théâtral faisant appel à une mise en scène et à une narration simples et minimalistes. À cela, ils ont ajouté des textes coups de poing qui vont droit au but. Recent Experiences, spectacle né de leur collaboration précédente, jouit encore d’un franc succès à l’échelle internationale.
Revolutions in Therapy est une œuvre contemporaine qui traite de nos préoccupations personnelles et collectives les plus intrinsèques.
Le production finale a été créé en residence à Usine C (Montreal)
Written, directed by:
Nadia Ross and Jacob Wren
With the artistic collaboration of Tracy Wright
Performed by:
Tracy Wright, Nadia Ross, Jacob Wren
Set Design:
Nadia Ross and Jacob Wren
Video projection design:
In collaboration with W.A.C. (Wakefield Art Collective)
Lighting Design:
Steve Lucas
Technical Director:
Steve Lucas
Stage Management:
J.P. Robichaud
Produced by:
STO Union, Le Festival de Théâtre des Amériques (Montreal) and Theater der Welt (Germany), in association with Artword Theatre (Toronto)
Tour and Production Management:
Menno Plukker Theatre Agent
Supported by The Canada Council for the Arts and The Ontario Arts Council.
TOURINGHISTORY
2006 / LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES UCLA Live, Los Angeles, United States
2006 / ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS Rotterdam Schouwburg, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2006 / STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN Stockholm Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden
2005 / BERLIN, GERMANY Hebbel Theater, Berlin, Germany
2005 / BONN, GERMANY Theater der Welt, Bonn, Germany
2005 / TORONTO, CANADA Artwood Theatre, Toronto, Canada
2004 / MONTRÉAL, Canada Théatre du Monde, Montréal, Canada
2003 / TORONTO, Canada Toronto’s Theatre Centre, Toronto, Canada
2003 / WAKEFIELD, Canada Black Sheep Inn, Wakefield, Canada
SELECTED PRESS QUOTES:
“It’s an angst-riddled piece of theatre performed with ultracasual confidence; an hour of doubt presented with certainty. It’s contradictory. It’s maddening. It’s bloody good.” GLOBE AND MAIL June 2005
“You want real? In her projection of pain and fear Ross…is as real as real can be; which means of course that she is acting, very well indeed.” NATIONAL POST, June 2005
“Perhaps Canada’s leading experimental theatre company….for those who are able to go with the flow and to remain open to the non-traditional, the results are rewarding.” TORONTO STAR, June 2005
“STO Union’s Revolution in Therapy is a small jewel: a thoughtful, sad, amusingly interwoven creation. They transform their way of being in the world with words, the expression in their eyes, long pauses, into a wondrous poetry of the body and thought. Nothing is spectacular, everything is simple: honest, open, presented with dry humor and great concentration…Ross and Wren are more famous in Europe than in Canada, which has trouble with experimental theatre forms in principle. You can bet that a lot of European producers will be taking them on.”” THEATER HEUTE, November 2004
“Torontonians Jacob Wren and Nadia Ross break the wall between actors and spectators like very few artists know how….more accessible than a course in transcendental meditation or a session with a shrink, and certainly as effective”. LA PRESSE, Montreal 2004
“For those who love a theatre that questions, you could not find better than Revolutions in Therapy.” LE DEVOIR, Montreal 2004