{"id":113979,"date":"2025-05-01T14:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T18:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=113979"},"modified":"2025-05-01T16:43:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T20:43:25","slug":"interview-oren-safdie-talks-play-beyond-ken-dryden-toronto-premiere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/05\/01\/interview-oren-safdie-talks-play-beyond-ken-dryden-toronto-premiere\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Oren Safdie Talks About His Play Beyond Ken Dryden And Its Toronto Premiere"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"L:
L: Playwright Oren Safdie (Public domain \/ CC0 1.0 Universal<\/a>); R: Graphic of Ken Dryden (Courtesy of Oren Safdie)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oren Safdie\u2019s play Beyond Ken Dryden will make its Toronto premiere at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts on May 15. The solo show touches on universal themes of identity, family, and what makes a hero, set against the volatile political landscape of Qu\u00e9bec in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

With an authentic sense of nostalgia \u2014 Oren\u2019s father Moshe Safdie designed the iconic Habitat ’67 for Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Expo 67 \u2014 the personal and the political come together from a child\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

The Play<\/h2>\n

Personal memories and political events are woven together in the play.<\/p>\n

Not much was going right at home for young Oren. Already in the midst of a divorce, his parents grappled with a devastating house fire, and the general political instability sparked by the growing separatist movement in Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n

Hockey becomes the thread that holds both the play and the boy together, specifically Safdie\u2019s childhood awe of Montr\u00e9al Canadiens goalkeeper Ken Dryden. With his family\u2019s home life in chaos, he found the stability he needed in the legendary goalie and his ability to stop the puck.<\/p>\n

Young Oren watched the city change, and the ways in which the political tides affected friends and family.<\/p>\n

Safdie\u2019s stepfather is writer Roch Carrier, and his iconic children\u2019s book The Hockey Sweater is also named as a source of inspiration.<\/p>\n

Talent<\/h3>\n

Actor Max Katz<\/strong> performs the solo show. While he\u2019s a native of New York, Katz went to school at Montr\u00e9al\u2019s McGill University, and along the way became a Habs fan himself. After his BA in Montr\u00e9al, he went on to an MFA at the Drama Centre London at Central Saint Martins. He also trained in physical theatre at the Boris Shchukin Institute in Moscow.<\/p>\n

Katz has appeared on stage from London\u2019s West End to the Montr\u00e9al Fringe and many points in between, including the Hudson Classical Theatre Company, and Sheen Center for Thought and Culture.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s probably best known for his role on The Thursday Night Club (Amazon Prime).<\/p>\n

Oren Safdie<\/strong>\u2019s play had its world premiere, (rightfully,) in Montr\u00e9al. The playwright has brought several of his works to light first in the city, including Seamless, Gratitude, and Mr. Goldberg Goes To Tel Aviv, all three of which were subsequently staged in New York City. His Private Jokes, Public Places was staged off-Broadway and in London, and garnered glowing reviews.<\/p>\n

The Canadian-American-Israeli began by following his father\u2019s footsteps, and studied at the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University before making the switch to playwright.<\/p>\n

He has also written for TV and films, including You Can Thank Me Later, which starred Ellen Burstyn, and Lunch Hour, with Thomas Middleditch and Alan Cumming). Oren teaches at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan.<\/p>\n

Oren Safdie: The Interview<\/h2>\n

As a play, Beyond Ken Dryden took some time to take shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it started actually when I was teaching a class,\u201d Safdie says. He was teaching at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and was guiding a class in an exercise on turning personal narrative into performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never written a one-person show before,\u201d he says. Teaching is often a path to learning, as it was in this case. \u201cI would teach for nothing, because I learn so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

An earlier play dealt with his own teenage years. \u201cI think maybe even as you get older, you look farther back,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just one of those things that just came together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naturally, his childhood memories couldn\u2019t be separated from where they took place: the politically fraught landscape of Montr\u00e9al, which was mixed in with his family\u2019s own divisive history at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a difficult time family-wise,\u201d he recalls. It took eight years of push and pull before his parents would agree to finally divorce. \u201cI remember that was also one of the most magical time in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In grade three, he remembers about half his classmates moving out of the province after the 1976 election that put the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois in power. He also recalls details like being advised not to speak English if he went to any of the predominantly Francophone St. Jean Baptiste celebrations in the city during those years.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the Canadiens were still bringing home the Stanley Cup, including a straight run of four years between 1976 and 1979.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me realize the power of sports,\u201d Oren says. \u201cI would say it was the one thing that held the city together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Habs players, as he points out, were largely from the province at the time, making it even more of a home team. It helped him as a child to feel part of the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an English Montrealer, you always felt like a little bit of an outsider.\u201d<\/p>\n

With everything about the world he lived in seemingly falling apart, the hockey\u2019s unifying togetherness was an appealing escape. He says the play was fun to write, despite some of the darker memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do remember my childhood as being wonderful \u2014 and also painful.\u201d It was a different time, with a different style of parenting. \u201cSo many kids in my class, their families were disintegrating. We were left to fend for ourselves,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very free. I don\u2019t know if that was a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He remembers roaming the city on his own or with friends at an age that would be frowned upon nowadays. That includes going to bars by the time kids were 13 or 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were really no rules in Qu\u00e9bec.\u201d<\/p>\n

The play is chronological as it unfolds, but the topics are linked by his specific thoughts. He begins the story in his late 20s when he learns that the Montr\u00e9al Forum is closing. It sparks a string of reflections that centre around the years from 1971 until 1979, the years when Ken Dryden played for the Canadiens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt parallels the journey of my family,\u201d he says of the timeline.<\/p>\n

With a minimalist treatment, the set is, as he describes it, a guy with a chair, a hockey stick, and a ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to keep it like that,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m a theatre person, and that\u2019s the one thing that theatre can do.\u201d Theatre has the ability to capture attention using the bare necessities with the right talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really about the actor,\u201d Safdie says, adding that he searched for a long time to find the right person to take on the role. \u201cI\u2019m not an actor \u2014 and I can\u2019t play 30 year olds,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The fact that Katz went to McGill was a key factor \u2014 he understood the city, and the hold that the Canadiens still have on the public consciousness.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very unique actor.\u201d Katz\u2019 training in physical theatre adds to his suitability for the role. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of physicality in the play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Actor
Actor Max Katz in Oren Safdie\u2019s play Beyond Ken Dryden (Photo courtesy of Oren Safdie)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reception<\/h3>\n

The play premiered at Montr\u00e9al Fringe, with many of the audience members sporting Canadiens jerseys. \u201cIt was amazing to see the superfans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safdie didn\u2019t actually meet Dryden in person before penning the play, but his publicist suggesting sending him a copy for his reaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cKen Dryden was really gracious,\u201d he says. \u201cWithin a day, Ken Dryden wrote me back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former player had retained minute details of, seemingly, every game he played, and was able to correct a few of the scores and other game details Safdie mentioned in the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great,\u201d he says. He was impressed by the hockey legend\u2019s low key attitude. \u201cHe\u2019s a humble person.\u201d<\/p>\n