Jan. 13, 2010 - Issue #743: Broken Embraces
WINGFIELD’S LOST AND FOUND: Return to the farm
Wingfield's Lost and Found marks seven plays and four thousand performances for its actor
"I guess it astonishes me. It seems to have gone very quickly, and something we never really dreamt of," Beattie explains while waiting for a breakfast order of eggs bennedict to arrive. "I think [Wingfield] must be unique, in theatre. It certainly is a luxury that you just don't get, to work on something that much, over that long period of time.
"I've read that Yul Bryner did over 3000 performances of The King & I," he adds. "It's something that a lot of actors wouldn't want to do. The ritualistic appeal of the thing is not something every actor feels. But I always have. When I started my career I was in Stratford, in the company, and it always astonished me that people would around about October start dragging their asses into the theatre and saying, 'Oh, God, when is this going to end? " And I never thought that. I always thought it was kind of a privilege."
Wingfield, for the unacquainted, is a stock-broker turned farmer in the fictional Persephone township (fictionally located an hour north of Toronto). Beattie embodies him, and every other character in the township as their lives intertwine. Within that framework, the events of Lost and Found centre around Wingfield's well running dry and his search to hydrate his farm among some other unusual farmland distractions.
"We intended the third play to be the end" he explains about his character's staying power. "And then it was about five years before we began to think about [another] play. What seemed to happen was that we might've thought it had ended, but the characters didn't believe it. Their lives had gone on, they had other issues and they had new stories to tell. We kind of just eventually relented. And since then, we've always felt they're more in control of the directing than we are."
Like many one-man shows, the Wingfield series is tinted with autobiography. It's not Beattie's, though; he doesn't write the material (outside of the influence and ideas that playing the same characters for seven plays obviously has on the writing process). His childhood friend Dan Needles has been the primary scriptwriter from the beginning, (with Rod's brother Doug directing the productions), with details drawn from his own rural past and present.
"Dan understands the rural in the way Doug and I can't. In a sense that's good, because we're then able to translate that to the outside world in a way he can't," Beattie says.
Still, even as they keep returning to the Wingfield well, so to speak, Beattie notes they have a system in place to prevent diminishing returns.
"We developed a couple of rules about playwriting," he says. "One of our rules is if the play leaves its audience in a situation in the same place at the end of the play as in the beginning, then that's not a play ... With a play, you have to have the protagonist's life change some how in order for there to be a dramatic effect. So that's been one of our rules, if the story that we think of doesn't in some way change Walt, then it's not a play. And it should be something that's important."V
Until Sun, Jan 31 (7:30 pm)
Wingfield's Lost and Found
Written by Dan Needles
Directed by Doug Beattie
Starring Rod Beattie
Citadel Theatre (9828 - 101A Ave), $45 – $65
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