{"id":64353,"date":"2019-11-02T15:35:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T19:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=64353"},"modified":"2019-11-02T16:16:50","modified_gmt":"2019-11-02T20:16:50","slug":"scrutiny-daniel-macivor-daniel-brooks-return-intelligent-challenging-lets-run-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2019\/11\/02\/scrutiny-daniel-macivor-daniel-brooks-return-intelligent-challenging-lets-run-away\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Daniel MacIvor And Daniel Brooks Return With Intelligent, Challenging \u2018Let\u2019s Run Away\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadian theatre legends Daniel MacIvor and Daniel Brooks latest collaboration is intriguing, subversive, provocative and unsettling.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Daniel
Daniel MacIvor in ‘Let’s Run Away’ (Photo courtesy of Canadian Stage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canadian Stage\/Let\u2019s Run Away, written by Daniel MacIvor, directed by Daniel Brooks, Marilyn and Charles Baillie Theatre, Oct. 31 to Nov. 17. Tickets available at canadianstage.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

W<\/span>hen theatre aficionados say Daniel and Daniel, they don\u2019t mean a catering company. They are referring to Daniel MacIvor (writer and performer) and Daniel Brooks (director and dramaturg), two of the most revered icons of theatre in Canada. Both are Siminovitch Prize winners honouring lifetime achievement, with MacIvor also earning a Governor General\u2019s Award for his writing. In short, they are Canadian theatre royalty.<\/p>\n

While both have distinguished careers working on their own, it is the series of original solo shows they have created together that has forever linked their names. Let\u2019s Run Away<\/em> is their seventh collaboration, and this monologue is as intriguing, subversive, provocative and unsettling as the previous six. As with their past efforts, Let\u2019s Run Away<\/em> also possesses that off-kilter sensibility, that oddball take on the human condition, that wry look at life, that is a hallmark of their collective work. Their sophisticated, intelligent and challenging shows both confound and entertain at the same time.<\/p>\n

At the heart of these solo shows are unforgettable characters, and the often strange life stories that they tell. In Let\u2019s Run Away,<\/em> MacIvor portrays a middle-aged man called Peter. We first see him lugging props onto the stage for a presentation he is about to give. He sets up two different lecterns and microphones, a window frame with a Venetian blind, and a bass guitar stand. Throughout the show, Peter communicates with an off-stage technician who is running the sound and lights, either giving orders, or carping about wrong cues. He is clearly not a seasoned public speaker, but he is on a mission to be heard.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel
Daniel MacIvor in ‘Let’s Run Away’ (Photo courtesy of Canadian Stage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I<\/span>t soon becomes clear that the two lecterns have very different purposes. At one, he reads from an unpublished memoir written by (as we shortly discover), his birth mother, and only those sections pertaining to himself (and there are not many). The second lectern, as he tells us, is for further information and rebuttal, where his intent is to correct or expand on the information in his mother\u2019s journal. Peter\u2019s greatest concern is getting the truth out there, and his modus operandi is crossing between the two lecterns.<\/p>\n

MacIvor and Brooks never spoon-feed an audience. We have to connect the dots ourselves from the scattered information we are given, and that\u2019s one of the fascinations of a D&D experience. It transpires that Peter\u2019s American mother, who is never named, came from a well-off family, dropped out of college, got pregnant after a fling with a rowing instructor, gave birth in Canada, abandoned the child, and ended up consorting with the rich and famous in New York. Peter, on the other hand, grew up in a series of group and foster homes, ran away as a teenager to join a carnival, and is now a gay faggot, as he calls himself, who is virtually living on the streets.<\/p>\n

The most important elements of the Peter\/mother story are descriptions of their brief encounters, but the monologue is also filled with weird and wonderful snippets from both their lives. Particularly delicious is the incident involving the bass guitar. Virginia Woolf\u2019s To the Lighthouse<\/em> (and the window frame) is also pivotal to their relationship. Accompanying the actual storytelling, are Peter\u2019s often hilarious personal asides which add such flavour to the text.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel
Daniel MacIvor in ‘Let’s Run Away’ (Photo courtesy of Canadian Stage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

M<\/span>acIvor is one of the most natural actors to ever tread the boards, and the character he builds on stage is absolutely believable on every level. His Peter is nervous, short-tempered, irritable, driven, anxious and complicated, but always sincere, maybe even over-earnest. He also proves to be intelligent, insightful and funny. Peter\u2019s life might seem the epitome of wasted potential and blighted promise, but his personal take on his vagabond existence is an interesting departure from society\u2019s norm. Is he fooling himself, or do we believe him? That\u2019s just one of the many curve balls that\u2019s Let\u2019s Run Away<\/em> throws our way. And then there is the fascinating picture of his mother that emerges from his storytelling. We certainly would like to know more about her.<\/p>\n

As always, at the end of a MacIvor\/Brooks show, the audience has a million questions that will never be answered. We are given just glimpses of lives lived, but never the full picture, with the crucible of the subtext being the impact we have on the lives of others.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on classical music and opera news and reviews? Follow us\u00a0on <\/em>Facebook<\/b><\/a><\/em>, <\/em>Instagram<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span> <\/b>or <\/em>Twitter<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span> for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadian theatre legends Daniel MacIvor and Daniel Brooks latest collaboration is intriguing, subversive, provocative and unsettling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":64354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25164,52,4951,62],"tags":[31193,631,29681,4230],"yst_prominent_words":[22923,32535,32547,32545,10652,29667,22280,32536,32533,32531,22282,12857,32544,32542,32534,32546,32543,32538,32537,32532],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/11\/Lets-Run-Away-CanStage-header.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-gJX","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64353"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64353"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64359,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64353\/revisions\/64359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64353"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=64353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}