Theatre Meele’s new production is absurdist comedy in apocalyptic times.
Photos by Theatre Meele
There has been a lot of talk recently about the state of Vancouver’s theatre community. For those of you that are not aware, the Playhouse Theatre, one of Vancouver’s prominent theatre production houses, closed down early this year. After this, some people decried the death of Vancouver’s theatre scene, but theatre artists don’t die so easily.
Theatre Meele, a company formed back in 2004, opened their newest creation Cozy Catastrophe on Oct. 22, and it promises to be a good one. Created through an ensemble-devising method, Cozy Catastrophe follows five characters who are trapped in a room right after the end of the world. The inspiration for this post-apocalyptic comedy arose three years ago, before the whole 2012-is-coming fascination. Co-director Courtney Dobbie is proud of this premonition of cultural trends. “We wrote this show about three years ago, before the whole zombie craze started happening. So we feel a little ahead of our time.”
The company, which came together through a common love of absurdist comedy, doesn’t follow the traditional playwright, director, performer hierarchy. “We wanted to devise together, because we have so much to contribute as creators and writers that it would have been sad to exclude someone’s amazing comedy writing potential just to follow the traditional theatre organization.” Dobbie explained. For Cozy Catastrophe, Theatre Meele began with the question, “What would happen if four people were stuck together at the end of the world?”
Theatre Meele was born out of a performance at the festival Theatre Under the Gun. Having limited time to create a performance within very specific constraints, the five graduates from Studio 58 and one from UVic realized that “the six of us just really liked each other’s sense of humour.” Since then, they have created four original comedies, always working in a devised theatre organization.
Devising theatre may open up the opportunity for multiple voices to be present in a play, but it is not without its headaches and heartbreak. “We have a lot of ideas, and a lot of fantastic ideas. It’s a matter of deciding which ones are strong and weeding out the ones that are not.”
The theatre environment in Vancouver is far from dead, but it is not without its obstacles. “There are a lot of challenges. Most of them are really healthy though, nice challenges to overcome. They don’t put you up against a wall.” Dobbie explains about being a theatre creator, “The biggest challenge when it comes to independent theatre companies is getting the money together and the producing power behind a project.
“It’s important that we keep creating no matter what,” Dobbie says about the current apathetic attitude some Vancouverites have on live theatre. “Out of the challenges from the supposed decline of the theatre environment of the city can come really amazing productions.”
This is some important advise for any young, up and coming artist; no matter what obstacles are placed in your way, you must keep fighting through it. Nobody gets into the arts for the fame; it’s hard work. You must do it because you love it.
“If all the theatre creators decided to move away from the city,” Dobbie imagined, “the city’s people would be upset. They may not know that right now, but the city would became quite a hollow and empty space.”
