Feature Red One Theatre recuperates its comedy

Benjamin Blais, Joe Dinicol, and David Reale have just finished their second performance of the night of James McLure’s Pvt. WARS for a very small audience at The Department studio space on a chilly Sunday evening. The show came within a hair’s breadth of being called off, and the actors seem genuinely happy at having had the chance to perform; after all, a tragedy very nearly canceled the show altogether.

Red One Theatre has been producing independent theatre in unusual spaces across Toronto for years—in back rooms, warehouses, studios, and more. The company has always relished and weathered the challenges of staging plays where theatre audiences have never been. But on the scheduled opening night of Pvt. WARS, the group had its biggest setback to date.

“We were loaded in with a full set, lighting design, all of it, and on what was supposed to be our opening night, we discovered there’d been a tragedy at the studio,” explains Dinicol. (A memorial service was held on Feb. 15 for Aaron Marx, the owner and curator of Studio 561 Gallery.) The three actors are reluctant to go into detail about what they found when they gained access to the space on the night of Feb. 9, out of respect for the deceased. “We aren’t being specific about what happened,” says Blais, “Because it’s not for us to tell—it had nothing to do with us or the show.”

Whatever the circumstances, the actors were obviously shaken by their experience—a tragic irony, considering the veterans they play in Pvt. WARS are all sanatorium patients recovering from mostly unrevealed traumas. Moreover, the situation brought their comedy’s planned two-week run to a halt before it began. “We haven’t been able to retrieve our set, our costumes, our props, our lights—everything,” says Dinicol.

Even equipment the group had rented is locked up, until arrangements can be made with Marx’s next of kin in the U.S. to release it. “We seriously talked of canceling the show altogether,” says Reale.

But the show has been rescued, rehoused, and restaged for a short run, due to the three friends’ desire to salvage their project, and a community that’s supportive of Red One Theatre’s work. “Matt Austin was there on what was supposed to be our opening night—a bunch of audience members were there, locked out, as we were,” says Blais. “And the next day, Matt told us, ‘I’m on this—I’ve talked to Marcello [Cabezas.]’ Marcello hooked us up with Zach [Kellum] here at The Department, who’s been amazing, and someone else donated chairs... there’s been this outpouring of support from the community, who really stepped up in our time of need.” 

There are a few pictures of the original set and lighting design tacked up in the studio for comparison, but audiences may be getting a better show in the intimate new venue. The three actors perform in the round, within arm’s reach of the audience, and it’s a rare chance to get up close and personal with rising stars. Blais, for example, will be at the Toronto Centre For The Arts in April to play Hamlet, and The Scotsman—“You know who I mean, right?” (He doesn’t want to utter “Macbeth” in the new space, after everything that’s happened.) And Dinicol’s currently starring in The L.A. Complex, a new prime-time soap about Canadian entertainers trying to “make it” in Hollywood. The steamy show, produced and filmed in Toronto (for the most part) by Epitome Productions (Degrassi), is already a critically acclaimed hit on MuchMusic, and is scheduled to debut in the U.S. on the CW Network this spring. 

Due to the short window of availability at The Department (not to mention the actors’ own busy schedules), Pvt. WARS will get 14 performances over just seven nights, with nightly 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. shows, closing on Friday, Feb. 24. (The adapted run is taking place in the week that was supposed to be the original show’s “extension.”) “We’re doing two shows a night because we want to be able to do the show for as many people as possible, and we have so little time to do it in,” explains Blais.

The actors are well aware the odds are against them filling the space, with postcards across the city with incorrect dates and venue listed, but there are obviously more important reasons for them to perform this play than the company’s bottom line. “I think if we’d shelved the show, we’d have had to live with a lot of regret,” says Blais.

Getting to play men who cope with trauma through comedy and camaraderie is probably the best way for the actors to recover from their own traumatic experience. “You have to be able to find levity in dark times,” says Blais. “And after all, we’re actors. This is what we love to do.”