Student theatre takes hostages
The entrance to the Abrams Studio in the Theatre School building is sealed off with a chain and a bright yellow construction sign. All that can be seen is a half-finished, broken-down wall with strategically placed holes while the sounds of hammering and sawing and occasionally interrupted by cursing construction men.
Maybe building a whore house is less fun than it sounds.
The Ryerson Theatre School is getting ready to present their new play The Hostage, written by Irish playwright Brendan Behan. The play is about a British soldier kidnapped by the Irish Republican Army and stashed away in an Irish brothel in retaliation for the hanging death of an 18-year-old IRA member.
"(We did) hours and hours of research on Irish history starting with Easter Rising and up until 1969. I had to do extensive research on Brendan Behan as well because he was an IRA rebel," said Chelsea O'Connor, a fourth-year theatre student who plays the role of Rae, the narrator.
The IRA started with a military rebellion against British rule. On Easter Monday in 1916, several locations in Dublin were declared as an Irish Republic independent from Britain. Though the rebellion was mainly unsuccessful it is considered by many as the starting point toward Irish independence.
In 1921 the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed between Ireland and the British which allowed Ireland to be self-governing. However, some members of the IRA were against the treaty, resulting in civil war and ongoing opposition to the parliament. Dissenters claimed that the IRA was the only legitimate Irish parliament, though most Irish people disagreed.
During Behan's involvement with the IRA, he was arrested in Liverpool, England in 1939 for the possession of explosives that he planned to use for a bombing campaign.
After serving three years in a reform school in 1942, he was tried and sentenced to 14 years in prison for the attempted murder of two detectives in Dublin. (He was pardoned in 1946.)
Behan based many of his novels and plays on his experience in the IRA. The Hostage premiered in London in 1958.
Now the fourth-year students are spending eight hours a day, six days a week rehearsing for the November 14 preview.
"We live in the theatre school basically," said Nils Hognestad who plays Pat, the runner of the brothel who is partially based on Behan himself. "Going into this we were warned by our teachers. On the first day we were told, 'If you don't want to be an actor, leave now.' Everyone here is ready to go into the real world."
The students also know what they want after graduation -- Hognestad and O'Connor both say they want to continue with theatre.
"Actors are like entrepreneurs. They need to create their own work and show it off," O'Connor said.
And like Behan promoting his Irish heritage, these students are trying to establish a Canadian identity within the theatre industry.
"Our generation of artists is taking things into their own hands and saying what they want to say," she said.
"In Canada we need people to start their own work," said Hognestad.
"More and more Canadian work is being produced but there still needs to be more."
The Hostage runs from Nov. 15 to 26 at the Ryerson Theatre School. Tickets are $12 for students in advance. For more info: (416) 919-5118, ryersontheatre.ca.
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