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February 25, 2011
An operetta about friendship
New Stuart-Aberle production will play at the Revue.
TOVA G. KORNFELD
What is the meaning of true friendship and how does it impact our lives? These are the questions explored in The Story of My Life, an intelligent two-character musical produced by community members and husband-and-wife teams Wendy and Ron Stuart and Stephen and Kathryn Aberle.
Canadian writers Neil Bartram and Brian Hill collaborated on the production, which premièred in Toronto in 2006, had a short stint on Broadway in 2009 and was nipped and tucked into the new shape that will have its Western Canadian debut at the Arts Club Theatre Revue Stage on Granville Island. The play has received four Drama Desk (New York theatre awards) nominations: for outstanding musical, music, book and lyrics.
The essence of the plot is the lifelong friendship of urbane award-winning author Thomas Weaver and his best friend of 30 years, since Grade 1, an awkward, bullied, social misfit, Alvin Kelby. The play opens with Thomas musing over the eulogy he must write after Alvin’s sudden and tragic death; he experiences writer’s block and the only way out is by revisiting the memories he has of his friend. Each of the 18 songs is a flashback to a chapter in Thomas’ life and it is only as he moves through these chapters that he begins to appreciate how important Alvin was in inspiring his work and making him into the successful man that he has become.
Aberle plays Thomas and Jonathan Holmes plays Alvin. Wendy Stuart is the musical director and Valerie Easton directs. All four worked together in The Thing About Men (see the article “A three-way romance” at jewishindependent.ca, Nov. 21, 2008, archives) and are excited about this second joint venture.
Stuart is well known in local community and theatre circles for her musical skill and has spent the last few summers with Theatre Under the Stars. She is also on the faculty of the Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! program, which is held at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver every summer. Aberle has a professional resumé that runs the gamut of the performing arts: theatre, television and opera. He was most recently seen in The Full Monty at the JCCGV.
Rehearsals for The Story of My Life are taking place at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture. During a lunch break, Stuart and Aberle spoke with the Independent.
Stuart shared that, after their success with The Thing About Men, “We wanted to work together again. We connect artistically and we were looking for something authentic and real to bring to Vancouver audiences. This show was Kathryn’s idea.... She asked me to listen to the music. I was stunned. The only word to describe the music is outstanding and the lyrics only enhance the effect. It is almost Sondheim-like. You hear the songs and enjoy them the first time and they are worth going over and over.”
Stuart, on piano, will helm a three-piece orchestra, with Kevin Woo on clarinet and Franki Lemon on cello. She described the music as being a backdrop for the themes that the play explores: the complexities of friendship, the personal cost of success and the choices we make at various points in our life.
Aberle loves the show and said that his feelings have only deepened as he has moved through the rehearsal process.
“There is something about this material that really touches my soul,” he explained. “The story and the way it is put together is funny, joyful and deep and that is a combination that you do not often get in theatre. It also portrays a healthy, loving relationship between two men that is not sexual.”
On that note, Stuart added that the writers originally wanted to have the main characters played by a man and a woman but were unable to keep them from falling in love, so they made the protagonists two men. Aberle quipped, “This allows the show to develop, as the men have to work through their feelings to be able to express their emotions. If two women were the leads, they would talk it out in five minutes and it would all be over.”
One unanswered question in the 90-minute show is, “Did Alvin kill himself?” Aberle hopes that the impact of the play will cause those in the audience to leave the theatre wrestling with what really happened and why. He added, “Some might feel like I did – that I just wanted to go out and call an old friend and reconnect.”
The Drew Facey-designed set will be minimalist: stacks of books, a stepladder, a lectern and a table. The intimate space at the Revue Theatre (198 seats) is perfect for the intimacy of this “two-man operetta” and, based on my short exposure to the show at the rehearsal and the great voices of Aberle and Holmes (I sobbed through their poignant finale and the stage manager had to offer me a Kleenex), I can safely say that few people will leave the theatre untouched. The show takes viewers beyond some of the superficial friendships we share on social media to a more meaningful form of human interaction.
The Story of My Life runs from March 2-19. Tickets can be purchased at vancouvertix.com or 604-629-8849. The show website, thestoryofmylife.ca, has excerpts of all the songs.
Tova G. Kornfeld is a local writer and lawyer.
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