ZOTTER STUCK IN A WORLD OF BEAT POETRY

ZOTTER STUCK IN A WORLD OF BEAT POETRY
EVA MARIE CLARKE / evamarie@vueweekly.com

Speaking to the ebullient Frank Zotter over the line from Vancouver, it’s difficult to envision him as the main character in Workshop West’s Stuck. Zotter is almost nothing like Jack, a broken-down, down-on-his-luck, drug-addicted actor. Nevertheless, the role has been his for five years. Thankfully, there’s no evidence that he’s indulged in any “method” tactics, inhabiting the role in real time. Actually, he’s almost unnervingly healthy and enthused about his press junket morning. “Vancouver is so beautiful today,” he says. “I’ve had a triple Americano and yesterday I climbed Grouse Mountain. I can hardly move today!”

The primary reason, other than a natural joie de vivre, for the play, is the opportunity to finally perform in Edmonton, “the theatre Mecca of Canada,” at Workshop West—now run by Zotter’s National Theatre School chum Michael Clark. “We’ve got that whole Alma Mater thing going on. But what’s really great is that he’s in charge of a theatre that’s struggled to represent wonderful work,” explains Zotter. “There are all these great voices that fight to just get by and stay above the water. Workshop West is a theatre that should flourish.” He sees this remount of Stuck as doing its bit to succour the company while, at the same time, bringing a new voice to Edmonton audiences. Stuck was first presented at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille before it won rave reviews Off-Broadway. The play is a Beat-infused maelstrom of images, chance encounters, beauty and ugliness as it navigates one desperate day in Jack’s life. He tries to score, meets up with a mad Irishman, a horny num and encounters both William S Burroughs and Alan Ginsberg in the unlikeliest of places. For Zotter, the near-exotic nature of Beat poetry—it has been 50 years since Kerouac et al turned the world on its ear, after all—enhances the theatricality of the whole affair.

“In using Beat, [David Rubinoff has] found a really clever theatrical device. That high gets infused to a whole new level,” says Zotter. “It enhances the drug trip; puts it in a new realm and it helps the progression in one way. It’s kind of like opera—when can’t say it, you sing it. There are places of catharsis that shift into beat and the beat releases them.”
Within the rollercoaster to damnation, there’s a lot of humour—but, says Zotter, the underlying themes are pretty terrifying, and as he’s matured with the role aspects haunt him more now than they ever did. “This guy is so desperate he’s willing to sell himself for a joint ‘laced with special no-name, man-made shit,’” he says. “We’re upping the drug addiction in this remount, trying to address what’s happening around us—the problems with meth and crack. His addiction was always extreme to me in the past, but now it’s more scary”.

There is redemption, too, a flower blooming amid the detritus of cast-off humanity and petty indifference. “I think that ultimately actions, not purposes, turn this play and its intention to speak its message louder and clearer. This guy is trying to find his feet, to push his crutches away—and he has so many crutches,” says Zotter. “The older I get, the more I see how pathetic addiction is. The play also talks about how artists are treated, how often they’re sold on street. It also gives a voice to the voiceless.”

Moreover, despite not living the role 24/7, the dictates of this script are unavoidable. “It’s really a great study in the actor submitting to the writing,” he notes. “The Beat poetry carries me like a wave; it’s a real thread spiralling with the character. It’s quite the trip, I gotta tell you.”

For Zotter, though, ultimately the action in the play, like most great theatre, boils down to the deepest desires that animate people even in the midst of despair. “There’s a strong heart of hope that beats loudly in this play,” he says. “It’s buoyant about rising above all the quick fixes. It’s about how to look from a higher perspective and the hope to stand on your own to be free.” V

Thu, Nov 2 - Sat, Nov 10 (8 pm)

StuckDirected by Rob Moffatt

Written by David Rubinoff

Starring Frank Zotter

Third Space (11516 - 103st), $18/$23

FONTE: VUE Weekly - Edmonton,Alberta,Canada

http://www.vueweekly.com/