High Life - Playbill

high life lee macdougall artist note: In 1986 I joined the Stratford Young Company where I met Lee MacDougall, a warm and welcoming and witty young man. (I have the card he once sent me for an opening which I have kept all these years because it still makes me howl to look at it). Our paths haven’t crossed much through the years since. It is remarkable the journey he has had as performer and director, but more so as a playwright. High Life has played across Canada and throughout the world and now it has found its way to us here in the Distillery.

Once again my dear friend Stu Hughes has been tapped to direct this band of brothers.

It is always good to be on deck with contemporaries Oliver and Diego, but there is a special delight in working with and watching Mike Ross continue to shine in whatever is asked of him.

A generation ago, Lee and I were young company members. Now we are surrounded by so many talented young people: the current Academy Artists who always seem to be here, bleary eyed but full of passion; the last Academy, some on stage at the Royal Alex, some writing plays that are the toast of the town, some designing, some directing, and some on stage with us here; from Soulpepper's first Academy: our designer Lorenzo Savoini, Weyni Mengesha, directing next door, and of course Mr. Ross. … to spend one’s life in the company of such talent. It is a High Life indeed.

Michael Hanrahan, Bug in High Life

illustration: brian Rea

high life lee macdougall

  canada 1997

production

cast

Stuart Hughes director

Oliver Dennis Donnie

Lorenzo Savoini set & Costume designer

Michael Hanrahan bug

Steven Hawkins lighting designer

Diego Matamoros Dick

Paul Humphrey Sound Designer

Mike Ross Billy

John Stead Fight Director Krista Blackwood Production stage manager Susanne Lankin assistant stage manager Dora Tomassi rehearsal stage manager Annie McWhinnie Rehearsal assistant stage manager Kelly McEvenue alexander coach Jordan Merkur assistant director

High Life was first presented in April 1996 by Crow’s Theatre as part of the du Maurier World Stage Festival.

High Life is staged by arrangement with Pam Winter, Gary Goddard Agency, Toronto, ON Canada. www.garygoddardagency.com.

Approximate running time 1 hour and 50 minutes.

background notes This play is not autobiographical, though it came from life, and in its preface, Lee MacDougall takes a comic stab at hedging his bets: “The names have been changed to protect me.” When the play premiered, Mr. MacDougall needed little protection: it was a phenomenon. It toured across Canada, was translated into multiple foreign languages, and became a film. While all writers may dream of this kind of Cinderella story, no one can set out to create one. There’s an (infuriating) element of serendipity to such things.

This production gives us a chance to revisit this theatrical sensation and see why it had such an impact.

First of all, the characters. Dick, the manipulative leader who’s dreamed up the big heist; Bug, a recently released career criminal blithely able to defend the indefensible (“just because you hit a guy and he dies doesn’t mean you killed him”); Donnie, a hopped-up small time thief with a constellation of medical problems; and Billy, the smooth-talking younger addict who’s never done any jail time. Four losers, a foolproof plan. Surely, you think, that’s been done.

Not quite the way High Life does it and that’s the second strength here: details. The time and care the writer takes, his precise observation and breakneck, twisted humour distinguish the play. We’re plunged into the story without preamble; the roller coaster takes off and we can only hang on for the ride. It may feel wild and chaotic, but there’s a solid, reliable, powerful structure beneath us. These irresistible details ensure that, while we don’t exactly identify with these characters, their (skewed? misguided? extremely original?) sense of honour and offhandedly outrageous behavior make it impossible for us to dislike them. These unexpected contradictions make each role a gift for an actor. An example: one of Dick’s early lines to Bug is: “I’m clean.” Dick knows the recovery vocabulary of Narcotics Anonymous because he goes to meetings – not to deal with his addiction, but to recruit a wheel man for the big job.

The play doesn’t dramatise or wring its hands over the men’s addiction either. “Fixing” in this story is as normal as popping out to the 7-11 for milk. Even now, the play feels authentic.

Yes, we nod as we’re laughing or shaking our heads, yes, this is what it must be like. That sense of truth along with the way MacDougall constructed the story also makes the play stand out.

The early, introductory scenes are short, propulsive, full of laughs while the later heist scene is extended placing us at the heist in real time. This canny decision maximizes the tension: the longer the scene goes on, the more likely it is that one of these bumblers will blow it.

We know it will happen, just not how, or when.

When he wrote High Life, Lee MacDougall changed the names to protect the identity of the men who’d inspired the piece. Maybe he wanted to protect himself too as a first-time playwright. But this play needs no protection, it stands, wonderfully, on its own, right in your face. We dare you not to laugh.

Biography Lee MacDougall, raised in Kirkland Lake, northern Ontario, is an actor, playwright and director who has worked in theatres across Canada. High Life, his first play, won a Dora Award for Best New Play, was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award, and a Chalmers Canadian Play Award. It has been produced across Canada and internationally in New York, London, Tokyo and Seoul. Lee also wrote the screenplay for the film of High Life, which was nominated for a Writer’s Guild Screenwriting Award. His other plays include The Ginkgo Tree, Resistance, A Winter Thaw, and an adaptation of W.O. Mitchells’ Who Has Seen the Wind?

Lee currently lives in Stratford, Ontario.

Background Notes by Associate Artist Paula Wing.

soulpepper production Jacqueline Robertson-Cull

Geoff Hughes

Natalie Swierz

cutter

dresser

Janet Pym

wardrobe coordinator

Mike Keays

Barbara Nowakewski

Greg Chambers

carpenter

1st hand

props builder

Duncan Johnstone Daniela Mazic

head of hair & makeup

scenic artists

soulpepper administration additions Diane Cook

So-Jeong Choi

Toby Malone

development manager

communications co-op student

resident dramaturge

soulpepper thanks:

Dr. Jan Malat.

Soulpepper Theatre Company is an active member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (pact), the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (tapa) and Theatre Ontario, and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. Scenic Artists and Set Decorators employed by Soulpepper Theatre Company are represented by Local 828 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.

YOUNG CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS DISTILLERY HISTORIC DISTRICT