Cherry Docs-Skinhead comes home
by Neil Boyce, The Mirror April 16th, 2009
Neo-nazi meets his match
David Gow’s Cherry Docs is one of those plays that an actor just gets excited talking about.
Beyond its great hook—a neo-Nazi skinhead accused of a hate-crime murder is defended by a liberal Jewish lawyer—Gow’s demanding story has been connecting audience and actor in a remarkable way since its 1998 premiere.
Performed internationally, the Montreal playwright’s crackling two-hander has been translated into Spanish, Hebrew, Polish and German, and made into a movie (Steel Toes, which Gow wrote and co-directed). But in another one of those “how come?” moments, the piece has never been staged by a local company (when it hit the stage here in ’03, it was with a travelling company from Halifax) in the author’s hometown, until now.
For the current production at Théâtre Ste-Catherine, director Gabrielle Soskin changed the signature style of her company Persephone Productions. Instead of an ensemble piece filled with actors fresh out of theatre school, Soskin cast McGill drama teacher Sean Carney as the lawyer. Bolder still, she picked Dan Jeannotte—a young actor and sketch-comedy performer (in the group Uncalled For) with plenty of experience but no formal theatre training—for the neo-Nazi.
“It sounds like kind of a courtroom drama,” Carney says, “but that’s not what this is. It’s really a character-driven story, that’s why it’s compelling. One of the first things the lawyer says is, ‘I don’t think you planned this, right? I don’t think it was premeditated, right?’—the literal approach. But what really matters is the question of whether or not somebody can change: if somebody was brought up a certain way, is that going to damn them for the rest of their life?”
The one-act takes place over a couple of months as the legal aid lawyer meets the accused. When the proud and left-leaning Jewish Canadian is confronted by someone who repulses him, he realizes the things he stands by—his influences, his upbringing—are put on the spot and tested.
“What it’s really about is, can a person change?” says Carney. “For me, a great play is about two things: characters struggling to humanize themselves where they’ve been dehumanized through their actions or circumstances, and it’s about asking an audience to suspend its judgment.”
“It’s never a question of whether he’s guilty,” says Jeannotte. “He says it within the first couple of minutes of the show. He’s an unrepentant racist and he’s committed a crime so disgusting that what’s interesting to me is whether the idea of redemption is applicable in this case.
“The audience is going to form an opinion of the characters right away, but shades of grey come in when we start to see parallels between the two men—neither one is who they appear to be at the beginning. This kid has been pulled down into a violent world but he’s not without human qualities.”
As he prepared for the role and shaved his head, strolling around the city was an odd experience for the young actor. “That was strange. I can’t help but be very self-conscious, especially when it’s just been skinned, as it were. I’m a really nice guy, but I just feel people will think I’m a racist—especially walking through such a multicultural city—I feel like apologizing to every minority I walk past.”
But the improv-comic in Jeannotte can’t resist a final crack as he adds, “I leave my swastika t-shirt at home.”
CHERRY DOCS TO APRIL 26 AT THÉÂTRE STE-CATHERINE (264 STECATHERINE E.)
Neo-nazi meets his match
David Gow’s Cherry Docs is one of those plays that an actor just gets excited talking about.
Beyond its great hook—a neo-Nazi skinhead accused of a hate-crime murder is defended by a liberal Jewish lawyer—Gow’s demanding story has been connecting audience and actor in a remarkable way since its 1998 premiere.
Performed internationally, the Montreal playwright’s crackling two-hander has been translated into Spanish, Hebrew, Polish and German, and made into a movie (Steel Toes, which Gow wrote and co-directed). But in another one of those “how come?” moments, the piece has never been staged by a local company (when it hit the stage here in ’03, it was with a travelling company from Halifax) in the author’s hometown, until now.
For the current production at Théâtre Ste-Catherine, director Gabrielle Soskin changed the signature style of her company Persephone Productions. Instead of an ensemble piece filled with actors fresh out of theatre school, Soskin cast McGill drama teacher Sean Carney as the lawyer. Bolder still, she picked Dan Jeannotte—a young actor and sketch-comedy performer (in the group Uncalled For) with plenty of experience but no formal theatre training—for the neo-Nazi.
“It sounds like kind of a courtroom drama,” Carney says, “but that’s not what this is. It’s really a character-driven story, that’s why it’s compelling. One of the first things the lawyer says is, ‘I don’t think you planned this, right? I don’t think it was premeditated, right?’—the literal approach. But what really matters is the question of whether or not somebody can change: if somebody was brought up a certain way, is that going to damn them for the rest of their life?”
The one-act takes place over a couple of months as the legal aid lawyer meets the accused. When the proud and left-leaning Jewish Canadian is confronted by someone who repulses him, he realizes the things he stands by—his influences, his upbringing—are put on the spot and tested.
“What it’s really about is, can a person change?” says Carney. “For me, a great play is about two things: characters struggling to humanize themselves where they’ve been dehumanized through their actions or circumstances, and it’s about asking an audience to suspend its judgment.”
“It’s never a question of whether he’s guilty,” says Jeannotte. “He says it within the first couple of minutes of the show. He’s an unrepentant racist and he’s committed a crime so disgusting that what’s interesting to me is whether the idea of redemption is applicable in this case.
“The audience is going to form an opinion of the characters right away, but shades of grey come in when we start to see parallels between the two men—neither one is who they appear to be at the beginning. This kid has been pulled down into a violent world but he’s not without human qualities.”
As he prepared for the role and shaved his head, strolling around the city was an odd experience for the young actor. “That was strange. I can’t help but be very self-conscious, especially when it’s just been skinned, as it were. I’m a really nice guy, but I just feel people will think I’m a racist—especially walking through such a multicultural city—I feel like apologizing to every minority I walk past.”
But the improv-comic in Jeannotte can’t resist a final crack as he adds, “I leave my swastika t-shirt at home.”
CHERRY DOCS TO APRIL 26 AT THÉÂTRE STE-CATHERINE (264 STECATHERINE E.)