Jan. 13, 2010 - Issue #743: Broken Embraces
THUNDERSTICK: Double or nothin’
Thunderstick's actors swap roles every night
Both seasoned television vets (Cardinal is best known for playing inept cop Davis Quinton on Corner Gas, and Lauzon has been a regular cast member of the Royal Canadian Air Farce—which he likes to call Hair Farce—since 2004) wanted to play the same character in Kenneth T. Williams' script: Jacob Thunderchild, an abrasive, thrice-married journalist with a penchant for booze and a protruding gut to show it. Talk about a dream role, right?
The deal: Lauzon and Cardinal decided to trade roles every night, giving them each fair and equal Jacob time, not unlike the production of Sam Shepard's True West where Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly swapped roles, explains Lauzon. Essentially, Jacob's just more fun to play.
"Jacob, even though he looks like a failure and a loser, he's got that instinct that good journalists have. That's what he runs his life on basically: his instinct and KFC," says Cardinal.
The production was also shared by Theatre Network and Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon, with co-directing credits going to Network's AD Bradley Moss and Persephone's AD Del Surjik. "We got the conference call that it was going to be produced by two companies, and directed by two directors—unfortunately we only have one stage manager who's had to work four times as hard," Lauzon says, adding that Stage Manager Cheryl Millikin's true genius shone through when the show was mounted to enthusiastic audiences in Saskatoon last November.
The other character, Jacob's cousin Isaac, is a successful, globe-trotting photojournalist who is reunited with Jacob after 15 years when they both find themselves working at the Ottawa Citizen.
Admittedly, it's hard to keep a straight face around the pair's constant wise-cracks—but they also stress the importance of Aboriginal audiences seeing the show.
"The boys reveal some of their deep personal hurts," Cardinal says, noting that the play broaches issues like residential schools and sexual abuse. "[Williams] is quite good because he approaches those subjects and people think 'Oh, here we go again,' but then he takes a hard left before he gets into it, and takes you in a different direction you didn't expect."
"The cool thing is that we're getting a lot of people going into the theatre for the first time in their life," he adds. Cardinal says it's important for Aboriginal audiences to see other Native people onstage more often. He recalls that when Thomson Highway's Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing debuted in 1989, he mistook the newspaper's photo of the cast for something entirely different.
"I remember opening The Globe and Mail and there was a big font page review with, like, six Indians on the front and I thought 'Oh, there's a stand-off somewhere!'" he chuckles.
For all its aboriginal themes though, both actors admit that the play shows a universal experience.
"Not once do we use the term 'band office' in this play. Or dreamcatcher. It's about guys, two guys," says Cardinal.
"Aside from being aboriginal, they're just two guys being guys together—it's probably the only play out there that ends with a bag-tag," Lauzon says. V
Thu, Jan 14 – Sun, Jan 31 (8 pm)
Thunderstick
Directed by Bradley Moss and Del Surjik
Starring Lorne Cardinal, Craig Lauzon
Roxy Theatre (10708 - 124 St), $15 – $27
New comments for this entry have been turned off and any existing ones are hidden. We apologize for any inconvenience.
