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Director Paul Van Dyck (with actors Aiza Ntibarikure and Jaa Smith-Johnson) says he took his time with Oroonoko ?because it?s treacherous territory for a white guy to tell the story of a slave.?
Photograph by: John Kenney , The Gazette
MONTREAL - Director/playwright Paul Van Dyck laughs off any suggestion of artistic kinship to Quentin Tarantino. But there?s no denying that they?re both white guys (and auteur directors) who feel compelled to take on the touchy topic of slavery. And, yes, Van Dyck did go to see Tarantino?s Django Unchained as he was preparing his latest theatrical work, Oroonoko, adapted from the 17th-century novel of the same title by Aphra Behn.
Behn is reputed to be the first British literary abolitionist. She is also regarded as a pioneer of feminism, as she was the first female British author to earn her keep with her pen.
Virginia Woolf once wrote of her, ?All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.?
Behn is also credited as being at the forefront of philosophical and epistolary novel writing. In addition to her works of fiction and poetry (about 30), she wrote at least 17 plays, worked as a spy for Charles II and led a sexually adventurous life. (As did many during the notoriously naughty Restoration era of British history.)
Oroonoko, which tells the tale of a kidnapped African prince forced into slavery, is Behn?s best-known work.
Van Dyck said it was a female friend who handed him the book several years ago. (Specifically, playwright Katharine Dempsey; Van Dyck had directed her play Penumbra at the Montreal Fringe Festival.)
?I read it in a day,? he said. ?It?s actually really short. And immediately I thought, wow, this would be a great play. As I was reading it, I could envision how it might be staged.?
Although Van Dyck is artistic director of Rabbit in a Hat Productions, he is relying on Persephone Productions (and the MAI Centre) to produce Oroonoko.
One of the reasons Behn?s book appealed to Van Dyck was that he had spent some time in Africa about 10 years ago.
?I was in Ghana,? he said, ?where the book begins. I spent time there living in a 17th-century slave trade fortress on the coast.
?I was doing this kind of epic journey across the continent of Africa,? he explained, ?and happened to end up in Ghana, where I met this documentary filmmaker who needed a camera operator.?
Van Dyck, who was raised in Brockville, Ont., and studied film as well as theatre and art history at Queen?s University, offered to do the job.
?And I ended up working in this castle making a documentary about slavery.? Which he has never seen.
?It was a German documentary, actually,? he continued. ?It was the only German slave-trading castle on the Gold Coast. It was a German filmmaker who went there to basically shed light on what the building was all about.?
After reading Oroonoko, Van Dyck put the idea of the play on the back burner for a while.
?Then, two years ago, I started seriously researching it.?
He took his time, ?because it?s treacherous territory for a white guy to tell the story of a slave.
?So I thought the least I can do is be as educated as possible about it.?
After researching the transatlantic slave trade, 17th-century society and politics, he turned his attention to Behn.
?That sent me on a whole other kind of inspiration, to want to include her as a major character in the story,? he said. ?Her life was so crazy. She was a spy, an activist and bisexual, the first successful female author in the English language. She was an incredible woman.?
Working her in wasn?t difficult, he said, because the book is told in the first person. ?She almost automatically became a narrator for the play.?
Behn?s Prince Oroonoko was born in the territory that is now known as Ghana. The first act of the play takes place in Africa, the second in Suriname, a British colony in South America.
?I?ve taken a lot of liberties,? Van Dyck said.
?But the basic plot structure and theme still exists, and the characters. Only I?ve added in a few people to help it along.?
Oroonoko will be portrayed by Jaa Smith-Johnson. Rebecca Croll will play Behn. The cast includes two African artists: Aiza Ntibarikure as Oroonoko?s love interest, and musical director/musician Dumisizwe Vuyo Bhembe. Other cast members include Christopher Moore, Alex Goldrich, Shannon Hamilton, Letitia Brookes, Chris Hicks and Amos Bohoussou.
After Oroonoko, Van Dyck, who has spent the past 10 years in Montreal, will be concentrating on the Infinith??tre remount of his boxing-match play Cornered, at Le Bain St. Michel, March 6 to 17. Then he will be heading off to the Shaw Festival for the summer, where he will be honing his directing skills thanks to the Neil Munro Intern Directors Project.
But not to worry ? he will return.
?I love Montreal,? he said. ?It?s a fantastic place to create work.?
Oroonoko, adapted and directed by Paul Van Dyck from the novel by Aphra Behn, runs Feb.?6?to?17 at MAI Centre, 3680 Jeanne Mance St. Tickets: $25, students/seniors $20. Call 514-982-3386; www.persephoneproductions.org.
pdonnell@montrealgazette.com
Twitter: @patstagepage
? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
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