Legoland creator impatient with sit-down-and-shut-up plays PREVIEW and SPOTLIGHT on playwright Jacob Richmond Jacob Richmond's grandfather once said he would attend more plays only if he "could lie down somewhere." Richmond -- a Victoria playwright who wrote the bizarre and hilarious Legoland -- thinks that's a wonderful idea. He's impatient with the traditional theatre model, where audiences take their seats and sit politely for the duration. "There's something in the theatre at times, it's like you're in jail or in John McCain's little Vietnam prison. It's kind of like, 'Get me out of here!' " Richmond laughs -- a sudden, barking outburst. A swift-talking, brainy fellow with a sardonic bent, he does that a lot. Many of his sentences conclude with a trademark conversational tic -- a nervous, affirmative "umhum." Legoland, opening tonight at the University of Victoria's Phoenix Theatre, is the 32-year-old playwright's biggest success to date. Starring Celine Stubel and Amitai Marmorstein, the comedy has been performed in Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Seattle and Los Angeles. It has, repeatedly, been a top award-winner at Fringe theatre festivals. Critics from coast to coast have fallen over each other in their praise: "one of our faves," "do not miss," "hilariously dark," "killer-smart script." |
Legoland is about an oddball brother and sister. Ezra plays with a Jeffrey Dahmer puppet and pops Ritalin and Dexedrine. Sister Penny is a school outcast obsessed with a boy band. Richmond, a self-deprecating fellow, admits it's loosely based on him and his sister growing up. "The funny thing is, people say it's so far out. It's so far out there, they're crazy. I kinda go, 'Oh wow, I must be nuts.' Umhum." He added: "My sister is a very life-affirming person. I was more of a bleak nihilist, right? I was obsessed with drawing monster pictures. People thought it was quite ... I've been to a lot of family therapy." Richmond remembers being impressed as a child by the novel Watership Down, particularly Richard Adams's dark political undertones. He also loved The Muppet Show and The Little Rascals. Even as a tot, he was fascinated by theatre. His father, director Brian Richmond, used to take his son to rehearsals. He recalls seeing his son's little head attentively poking up from behind seats. He also remembered Jacob as a "rebellious" teen pulled from high school to attend an alternative school in Toronto. Jacob Richmond studied theatre at Concordia University and UVic, where Brian Richmond chairs the theatre department. Jacob jokes that when he attended UVic, the other students -- noting the family connection -- dubbed him "The Prince of the Phoenix." His mother is actor Janet Wright, a regular on the Corner Gas television series. Richmond's other plays include Qualities of Zero (once described as a "philosophical sex farce") and Small Returns (once described as a "hallucinogenic comedy"). Aside from Legoland, he is best known in this city as co-director of Atomic Vaudeville. Regularly staged in a Broad Street nightclub, the company's large-cast shows are irreverent, surreal and outrageous. |
Partly because of the style of comedy, and partly because patrons are free to indulge cabaret-style eating, drinking and wandering about, Atomic Vaudeville has succeeded in attracting that increasingly rare thing in theatre -- the 30-and-under crowd. Richmond runs Atomic Vaudeville with Britt Small, who (with the playwright) is also co-director of Legoland. The company's brand of comedy is influenced by Richmond's experiences writing for cabaret theatre troupes in Montreal. Rather than ordinary sketch comedy built around punch-lines, Atomic Vaudeville lives up to its name by blending theatre, music, dance and puppetry. It connects strongly with the community by virtue of its big casts, numbering as many as 25. Initially, friends of the performers alone would pack the place, although Atomic Vaudeville's following soon grew larger. The next Atomic Vaudeville show is a Halloween offering delivered along the theme of elitism versus the common man. This, Richmond says, reflects the zeitgeist of today -- what with politicians such as Stephen Harper and Sarah Palin trying to portray themselves as plain, ordinary folk. "It's interesting that those parties who are going to totally screw over the working man are the ones where everyone goes, 'Hey, they're just like me.' " Richmond is also writing a musical with musician Brooke Maxwell, who plays and composes for Atomic Vaudeville shows. Ride the Cyclone is about eight children who die in a roller coaster accident. It's scheduled to premiere at the Metro Studio next March. One suspects it will be an unconventional theatrical trip. Said Richmond: "I go 'Oh dear!' if the curtain goes up and I see like, a living room. I go, 'Oh no! Oh no!' " |