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Oct. 17 - Oct. 22, 2004 |
Not just a Dead End
Toronto's Daniel Maclvor's one-man theatre empire
By Sarah B. Hood
Originally Published: 2004-10-10
When Daniel MacIvor's in the house, theatre happens. The playwright/ performer has developed a quasi-cult following by touring to small, avant-garde spaces across the country with his solo shows (like House and the upcoming Cul-de-sac) and work for himself plus one or two other people (like In On It). Among the advantages, this means that MacIvor and his frequent collaborator, director Daniel Brooks, can hone a work to perfection over a carefully planned run in multiple cities, meanwhile reaching a large proportion of their potential audience.
Has he arrived at an ideal plateau, I ask him, or is this just a staging-point on a longer trajectory? The answer is typically of the mercurial Mr. MacIvor: "Yes and no and maybe."
Then, because he's also a nice guy, he elaborates: "I feel like the process that we use is very organic. It feels right for our personalities. It works on so many levels. The next thing we're doing is we're going to go even smaller. I guess that means we'll have less story," he muses. "And smaller in terms of production; sort of a bare-bones kind of storytelling." However, he adds that he is also "really interested in writing plays in a more conventional way, so I'm moving deeper into it and away from it at the same time."
As he's telling me all this over a cellphone, he's also excusing himself as he works his bicycle through crowds of film buffs in the Queen and John Street neighbourhood because - go figure - MacIvor also has a new film (Wilby Wonderful) opening at the Toronto International Film Festival. So where do films fit in with the stage work?
"It's not apples and oranges and cats and dogs; it's apples and cats," he explains. "It's like saying 'I eat salads and I have a cat.' The only thing that I bring to movies that I also bring to theatre is an attitude that's inclusive and collaborative. But in terms of the kind of story that I tend to tell in theatre versus film, it's so different that it surprises even me!"
However, he's clear on the differences between the two media. "In the theatre, we know where the art exists. It's the thing that you pay the money for. You observe the art occurring. However with the cinema you go in and you watch light projected on a flat surface. It's a technical feat, but is it art? Art happened, but is it happening now?"
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