Ages of the Moon, produced by Lonesome Moon Productions, Oct. 27-Nov. 6, at North Vancouver’s Presentation House Theatre. Show times: weekdays 8 p.m.; Saturdays 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sundays 1 p.m. Tickets: $20/$30. phtheatre.org/show/ages-of-the-moon.
Ages of the Moon, a work opening next week at Presentation House Theatre by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard, argues that time is a liar.
“(It) reminds us that the past is mostly vague, subjective, self-serving interpretation – that we create stories and myths to substantiate our illusions of who we are and of a reliable safe world,” says the play’s director, John Cooper. In the last 35 years the local theatre veteran has directed more than 130 productions at theatres across Canada, many of which were mounted at the Arts Club and Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Companies.
The Vancouver resident goes on to explain that the production further suggests that this stands in strong opposition to the truth of an ever-changing, unreliable and therefore frightening existence.
“We fight change, especially that change which brings discomfort. We desperately fight to keep things as we think they are, and render ourselves ridiculous – and comic – in the process. Hopefully we finally surrender to what is true in this moment. This is what I see born out in the story of the play. I think that the play does not address who we want to become, but rather how foolish we appear in our fearful resistance to who we have become,” he says.
Ages of the Moon opens Oct. 27 at the North Vancouver theatre and will complete its run Nov. 6. The action centres around two old friends, played by Jon Bryden in the role of Ames and Alec Willows as
Byron, reunited by mutual desperation on the eve of a lunar eclipse.
“Over the course of the action we learn that within the old friendship are rivalries and petty jealousies and old resentments. All the things that they’re operating on as true are based in fiction. There’s a reason why they haven’t hung out for the last 20 years,” says Cooper.
Bryden, a longtime friend and collaborator, brought Shepard’s script to Cooper. Having taken a hiatus from the stage for a number of years, Bryden expressed an interest in making a triumphant return to local theatre and wondered if Cooper may be willing to partner with him for the project.
“I saw both the comic fun and the merit of the story for public discussion and thought this is a good thing to be involved in,” says Cooper.
Bryden then approached another friend of theirs, Willows, who was also happy to come on board. The trio, as Lonesome Moon Productions, continued to source industry friends to help bring the work to the stage, mainly Arts Club alumni, and are pleased to finally be presenting the work, which Cooper feels sends an important message.
“I could relate to it as a human being and I can relate to it as a fella. We have a difficult time looking at our personal truth, our emotional truth. We create stories and myths and narratives to make us feel safe and OK and I think that’s separated from our truth, what’s really going on for us. We don’t relinquish these stories and ideas easily, we become rigid about them and of course we often appear quite foolish in the process. Everybody else can see it but we can’t, right? Usually this becomes quite uncomfortable until something breaks and we’re forced to accept our truth. There’s a kind of universal process that I’m quite intrigued by. … We’re quite foolish when we deny our truths and argue ourselves further and further into a hole as we become desperate until the vulnerability takes over and we have to actually surrender to the truth of what is. So it’s that, and the fun of the characters, and the fun of the resistance that I find amusing,” he says.
Cooper is grateful for the talent of his players, bringing first and foremost comedic awareness to their respective roles, as well as a willingness to offer insight from their personal experiences.
“The whole purpose of doing a project like this is to collect a group of people to sit together in a dark room and witness something that may be true for them so they don’t feel alone with it. I think that takes a certain generous sharing on behalf of the actors, a sharing of their own vulnerability,” he says.
“Nobody likes to look the fool, but we’re all capable of such foolishness and trying to protect ourselves. I like that about the piece, it’s quite compassionate that way, it observes the folly but it does so ultimately in a compassionate way. I think it leads us towards intimacy rather than separation. We like to think that if we stay by ourselves and we solve all our problems ourselves that that’s being strong and all it is is creating greater and greater pressure and weakness. Really the answer to solving these things is by being intimate and sharing your truths with somebody else, that’s friendship. Not being right about stuff and proving you’re right. The actors, I think, are making the commitment to those things but I think they’re both really good comedians, which makes the fun part of the struggle engaging and entertaining,” he adds.
