The Conjuror playbill

magicana in association with soulpepper presents:

the conjuror david ben }{

approximate running time: 1 hour & 30 minutes there will be no intermission

artist note: david ben Over the past few years the performance of magic has experienced a renaissance, leading some to speak of a “New Golden Age”.

Multi-million-dollar productions in major resorts and casinos and a new era of variety shows have drawn audiences on a scale unprecedented in the history of this ancient form of theatre.

It was a different kind of magic, however, that first drew me to the craft. This kind of magic was typical of the first Golden Age of Magic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries where, with the deft use of language and interpersonal cues, the magicians invited their audiences to embark on a voyage of imagination and wonder.

In developing The Conjuror, Patrick Watson and I had several related objectives. One was to re-create the stage magic of this earlier Golden Age, to transport you to a time and place (we chose the year 1909 and the legendary St. George’s Hall in London) where audiences came to be enchanted by paradox. These were sophisticated

adult audiences who, within that kind of theatrical space, could allow the child within to believe that the only possible explanation of the paradoxes was – magic.

So first we decided to create a historically authentic performance featuring magical effects of a century ago, using the actual techniques of those old masters of enchantment. Second we went out to make a piece of theatre woven together with texture and irony, magic and humour, language and music, so that we might reflect today’s inner child in the magical mirror of yesterday.

Finally, we recalled that the performers of the older magic were nourished by the affection of their audiences. This affection, they argued, could be won only by risking a close, almost intimate relationship with the audience. Our Conjuror aims to re-create this kind of relationship.

It is a participatory kind of magic, and in this spirit we invite you to enter.

david ben,

Magician and Co-author of The Conjuror. p roduc t ion s p on sor

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES: THE CONJUROR Bonnie Beecher – soulpepper 2014: Lighting Designer: Angels in America, The Conjuror. FOR SOULPEPPER:

Lighting Designer: Angels in America, Parfumerie, Jitters, What the Butler Saw, Death of a Salesman, Loot, Awake and Sing!, Parfumerie, Black Comedy/The Real Inspector Hound, The Lesson, The Bald Soprano, No Man’s Land, Happy Days, The Threepenny Opera, Blithe Spirit.

OTHER THEATRE: Over 200 designs for theatre, opera and dance across Canada and internationally. Recent productions include Pianopiece (Dortmund Ballett); Abduction from the Seraglio, Persée (Opera Atelier); The Flood Thereafter, Yukon Style (Canadian Stage); Isadora (Ballet Mannheim); Once on this Island (Acting Up); Cabaret (Shaw Festival). OTHER: 12 Dora nominations, 2 Dora awards. david ben – soulpepper 2014: Co-author, Director, The Conjuror. David Ben was born, bred and continues to thrive in Toronto. He was educated at the University of Toronto (BA), Western (LLB) and the London School of Economics (LLM), after which he spent some years in that most magical of professions: tax law.

Since 1990 he has devoted himself full time to magic. He’s a protean presence in the entertainment industry as a magician, performer, writer, creator, magic historian and collector.

He is a founding member – and current Artistic Director – of Magicana, a performing arts organization dedicated to the study, exploration and advancement of magic as a performing art.

Glenn Davidson – soulpepper 2014: Stage Manager: The Conjuror. FOR SOULPEPPER: Fronteras Americanas, What the Butler Saw. OTHER THEATRE: The Dog

and the Angel (Theatre Columbus); Card Table Artifice (Magicana with Luminato). Upcoming: House of Dreams (Tafelmusik); Stuff Happens (National Arts Centre).

c ov e r : c ou rt how l e t t-b e n & dav i d b e n .

PHoto: c y l l a von t i e de m a n n

Ken Delaney – soulpepper 2014: Stagehand: The Conjuror. OTHER THEATRE: Two seasons at the Shaw Festival. FILM & TELEVISION: Republic of Doyle, Murdoch Mysteries, The Trojan Horse. OTHER: Graduate of George Brown Theatre School.

Julie Eng – soulpepper 2014: The Subject: The Conjuror. OTHER THEATRE: Tricks, Natural Magick, Piff Paff Poof. OTHER: Executive director for Magicana, an arts organization dedicated to the exploration and advancement of magic as a performing art, and plays an active role in community outreach programs for children and seniors.

Suleyman Fattah – A mystery even unto

The Conjuror.

John Lang– soulpepper 2014: Music Designer: The Conjuror. OTHER THEATRE: Dance: Blue Snake

(National Ballet). Theatre: Mother Courage (Equity Theatre). FILM & TELEVISION: A Winter Tan, Bonne Fete Maman, Arthur Currie, Conversations with Jean Vanier. Composer (with Aaron Davis): Rude. OTHER: Genie nomination (Rude).

Gemini awards (No Price Too High, Ebola: Inside an Outbreak, Einstein). He now lives in semi-retirement in Peterborough.

William Schmuck – soulpepper 2014: Costume Designer: The Conjuror. OTHER THEATRE: Shaw Festival Design Director since 1996. (Selected credits) The Philadelphia Story, The Charity that Began at Home, Enchanted April, Lady Windermere’s Fan, Hedda Gabler, Present Laughter, Drama at Inish, Candida, John Bull’s Other Island, The Women, Star Chamber, Brief Encounters, After the Dance, The Stepmother, Mack and Mabel, The Cassilis Engagement, The Constant Wife, Floyd Collins, Pal Joey, Rutherford and Son, Blood Relations, The Royal Family, Caesar and Cleopatra. Elsewhere: Canadian Stage, Arena Stage, Canadian Opera Company, Soulpepper, Vancouver Playhouse, Houston Grand Opera, Vancouver Opera, Grand Theatre.

BACKGROUND NOTES Patrick Watson – soulpepper 2014: Co-author.

Patrick Watson was born in Toronto and got his MA at the University of Toronto. His distinguished career in broadcast journalism as a writer, producer and host includes seminal programs such as This Hour Has Seven Days, The Watson Report, Witness to Yesterday, Live from Lincoln Centre and the Heritage Minutes Project. He was chairman of the CBC from 1989 to 1994. His published writing includes a psychological thriller Alter Ego, The Struggle for Democracy, and an autobiography This Hour has Seven Decades. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1981 and promoted to Companion in 2001. He is a qualified pilot, a practising magician, a multiple Emmy and ACTRA Award winner and a recipient of the Queen’s 50th Anniversary Jubilee Medal.

Kelly Wolf – soulpepper 2014: Costume Designer: The Conjuror. OTHER THEATRE: Designed for many theatres across Canada ranging from small independent companies to the major festivals. Selected credits: The Old Man and the River (Theatre Direct); Queen for a Day (Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts); Sanctuary Song (Theatre Direct – NAC); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Citadel Theatre); The Sound of Music (Drayton); Between the Sheets (Nightwood); seven seasons at the Shaw Festival. OTHER: Instructor at Brock University.

“People see the world in different ways,” says David Ben. “Some see it visually or musically. I see the world magically. As a series of paradoxes to be resolved.”

The illusions in The Conjuror go back more than a hundred years to the first Golden Age of Magic in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Creating this show was both a labour of love and a fascinating journey for David Ben, who is also an avid collector and passionate magic historian. He began forensically, exploring any material he could find on the signature illusions of the great magicians of the Golden Age. He spoke to collectors, read old writings, and tracked down magicians with links to the effects’ originators. Knowledge is closely guarded in magic; the secrets are known only to a select few. Thanks to Ben’s persistence – and his commitment to resolving paradox – these pearls of the past were rescued from obscurity.

Once the material had been gathered, Ben needed a context for it. He approached venerable CBC journalist and writer Patrick Watson with a question: What if all the most famous illusions of the period – illusions like the Indestructible Egg, the Egyptian Water Jars and Sawing Through – were performed in one show? They hit on the idea of creating a fictional evening at the legendary St. George’s Hall in 1909, a palace of magic in London England that was packed every night in those long ago days. Audiences then were enchanted by magic that, according to Ben, “takes place in the mind of the spectator, through deft use of language and interpersonal cues.”

In other words: magic whose most powerful technologies are the human mind and human skill.

BACKGROUND NOTES CONTINUED The Conjuror comes to our stage after many successes, and a hiatus. It was first seen as a lunch time show at the Shaw Festival in 1996. It returned the following year in an expanded version. That same year the Royal Ontario Museum rebuilt their theatre specifically for the show, which ran for a record-breaking four months before going on tour. It was last seen in Toronto in 2002 at the Isabel Bader Theatre. In revisiting the show, Ben brings greater experience and

understanding as well as several surprises especially constructed for Soulpepper audiences.

The Conjuror is intimate, funny, enchanting, and guaranteed to amaze you no matter how old – or young – you are. Go on. Surrender to the extraordinary spell created by David Ben and the ghosts of all the magicians whose illusions have returned to amaze and delight us one more time.

B ac kgrou n d Not e s by Pau l a W i ng

Soulpepper 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 are represented by Local 828 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. •

special thanks: Allan Slaight, Gary Slaight, Emmanuelle Gattuso. With much love to Patrick Watson.

family festival supported by: