If the names Mary Margaret O’Hara, Razorbacks, Leslie Spit Treeo, Scary Mary, Gordie Johnson and Handsome Ned mean anything to you, then you’ll probably enjoy Tale of A Town. Opening Saturday night (May 1 – 16), the site-specific theatrical journey traces the transformation of Queen Street West from a bohemian, rock ‘n’ roll drag into an upscale strip of condos and chain stores.
Although it’s essentially a one-woman show led by actor Lisa Marie DiLiberto, above right, Tale of a Town has been a collaborative effort by the members of Fixt Point, an indie theatre group based in Parkdale. DiLiberto and musical director Treasa Levasseur set up shop at the soon-to-be defunct Cameron House where they interviewed local luminaries from years gone by, assembling the cultural history of this famous and infamous stretch of Toronto.
“We started by doing research at the public library and the city archives and we discovered that not much of his history is written down anywhere, it’s much more of an oral history,” says the energetic DiLibreto.
The Fixt Point team crafted a storyline built around a vintage clothing shop that is closing its doors to make way for a condo development. The audience assembles outside Theatre Passe Muraille and is led down the block and around the corner, past construction hoardings and into a makeshift theatre with sets that approximate the Cameron’s backroom (complete with live band), a condo model suite and the vintage clothes shop. DiLiberto’s background in community theatre (Jumblies) and clowning (she has studied with France’s Philippe Gaulier) should serve her well as she carries the weight of the production on her small, strong back.
Co-producer Charles Ketchabaw, top left, says Fixt Point envisions teaming with BIAs to capture and embellish the stories of other neighbourhoods: “Our ambition is to make this an ongoing series where we can go into new areas and document cultural histories both here in Toronto and even in other cities.” Fixt Point got the ball rolling last year by telling the tale of Parkdale.
“For our company, it’s as much about the process of building the play as the actual, final production,” says Ketchabaw. “We document the creation online so that becomes a kind of archive that can live on after the play is finished. Hopefully at the end of this we’ll have more collateral to then approach new partners. Our ultimate goal is to go into a place, do the research work, have a big celebratory production and then have the website live on as a legacy of the project.”
Although this new installment of Tale of a Town relates a story of extreme gentrification, DiLiberto stresses that the play brings no judgment to the phenomenon: “The play recognizes that while it’s the end of the clothing shop, it’s the beginning for the people who will be moving into the condos and shaping the next chapter in Queen West,” she says. “And it’s not just the artists we remember, before them there were knitting mills and sweatshops down here.”
While some of the nostalgia is melancholy, DiLiberto is bound and determined to have fun with the material. “The play is hilarious,” she states. “There are touching moments but it’s definitely a heightened reality. The humour is broad and much of the show is written in rhyme so it’s a lot of fun to perform.”
WHERE/WHEN: Tale of a Town meets at Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Avenue, box office 416.504.7529) May 1 & 2, May 6 – 9 and May 13 – 16 at 7:30 pm; tickets are $12 advance, $15 at the door.
Photos by Christopher Jones
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Hello!
A correction – the Cameron House is still open! It did change ownership, but it did not close! Hooray!
Thanks for the update, Lisa Marie.
I wish I could have seen this! I just came back from the Toronto Archives trying to look into their material on this stretch of Queen St West and it is pretty barren. Do you still have an online record of your material somewhere? I’m really interested in checking it out.
Jenn,
We are opening Theatre Passe Muraille’s fall season on September 15th 2011.
http://passemuraille.on.ca/shows/fall2011/taleofatown/
Come join us.