Preview
LITTLE MALCOLM AND HIS STRUGGLE AGAINST THE EUNUCHS
Dark Forest Theatre Company
Starring Tyler Rive, Christopher Austman, Jon-Paul Khouri, Duane Jones and Cheryl Hutton
Written by David Halliwell
Directed by Aaron Coates
Runs until February 19
Big Secret Theatre (Epcor Centre)
When Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs premièred 40 years ago, would-be bohemians suffered for their art in dingy studio apartments and lived in perpetual, impotent revolution.
Today, with "Bush Sucks" T-shirts on the back of every defiant pre-teen and on sale at every mall kiosk, revolution as a lifestyle is more popular than ever, making it a good time for Dark Forest Theatre Company to bring back David Halliwell’s dark 1965 satire.
Famously revived in 1999 with Ewan McGregor in the leading role, Little Malcolm continues to find sympathetic audiences with its portrayal of an art-school student whose expulsion triggers an elaborate and ultimately tragic revenge. Played out with claustrophobic immediacy in Malcolm’s (Tyler Rive) studio apartment, Halliwell’s drama tells of its hero’s conceptual "Dynamic Erectionist Party," which serves as an outlet for his frustrations as well as those of his friends and ultimate co-conspirators. It’s a scenario of bitter retaliation that recalls the 20th century’s most reviled dictator and his own failed bohemian life – a conscious parallel in a play about blind revolution.
The play takes place 20 years after the end of the Second World War, points out Dark Forest founder, artistic director and Little Malcolm director Aaron Coates. "Young people at that time, instead of not speaking of the war, are very open about it, want to talk about the ideas. And they talk about Hitler freely, but conceptually. They simply appreciate any kind of revolutionary, regardless of what they were actually trying to accomplish, which is ultimately their downfall, because they can only ever see the acts and not ever the consequences of their actions."
The familiar story of an artist struggling to produce a work in spite of a world unwilling to accept it resonates with Coates. While Vertigo Mystery Theatre’s imminent remounting of his drama The End of the Rope shows the Calgary-based playwright’s increasing status on the local theatre scene, he says Dark Forest Theatre’s beginnings were, in many ways, in line with Malcolm’s own idealistic battle.
"It feels like exactly the same fight, because you want so much to bring your perfect ideas onto stage somehow, but the reality of doing them can often bog you down," he says. "You’re trying to find space or you’re trying to find money or you’re trying to get a group of people together at a specific time, and it all seems to conspire against you.
Coates has wanted to produce Little Malcolm ever since he started up Dark Forest in October 2001. "I had passed around the script to various people and everyone loved it the same way I did," he says. "We wanted to do it at the time, but it was totally beyond our means."
This season, when the little company was able to secure the Big Secret Theatre as a venue, Coates decided it was time to finally stage the show.
As part of the production, Dark Forest has had three students from the Alberta College of Art and Design provide artwork to decorate Malcolm’s studio. Work by the students, Jocelyn Grossé, Josh Holinaty and Jenn Salvador, will also be on display in the theatre lobby during the show’s run.
While the revolution of the ultimately tragic Dynamic Erectionist Party may be fodder for grim satire, the desire to push ahead despite a world of obstacles remains. Even given the possibility of rejection and successive mistakes, idealism remains a powerful catalyst for change, even if in the end it is often corrupted.
"I think people who come to see this (play) will respond to the desire to act regardless of what the consequences might be," says Coates. "There are so many things (happening) now, there’s revolution in the air in so many ways. There’s the response against Iraq or the response against globalization; they’re easy things to jump onto, but more difficult to follow through right to the end. And sometimes we don’t always have the facts when we jump on board. I think a lot of people will see parallels between things like that and Little Malcolm." |
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