Wardrobe of possibilities

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This article was published 01/12/2023 (1055 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Toronto’s Bad Hats Theatre has a good thing going in Winnipeg.

Over the last five years, the innovative, something-from-nothing Toronto musical theatre company has developed a collaborative relationship with the Manitoba Theatre for Young People that a growing arts organization can usually only dream of.

In 2019, Bad Hats brought its award-winning version of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan to the theatre at The Forks. Last year, the company was back at it with a wild and moving take on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, which went on to win six Dora Mavor Moore Awards after its run at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre.

Now, artistic director Fiona Sauder and her band of misfits are back to launch another world première of a Bad Hats adaptation, based on C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series, yet another classic piece of children’s literature ripe for a modern update with extra twists and turns.

Why toy with something that’s working so well?

After the success of Alice, MTYP artistic director Pablo Felices-Luna couldn’t think of a single reason, so he commissioned Sauder’s company to take on Lewis’s magical world, first brought to light in 1950 with the publication of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Narnia runs until Dec. 23 and is recommended for children in Grade 1 and up.

“(Pablo) said, ‘Whatever you want to do, let’s make it happen,’” explains Sauder, 31, who co-founded Bad Hats with Nicola Atkinson in 2015 after graduating from Toronto’s George Brown Theatre School.

“Whatever you want to do, let’s make it happen,” could easily be the company’s motto. Sauder, who carries herself with an admirably punky air, says Bad Hats always looks to create “from the spirit of the child,” through “high-octane ensemble work.”

They play make-believe with whatever is within reach.

Look at a Bad Hats set and you won’t see expensive gear or gadgets.

“We’re not looking to have major production elements like a revolving stage or hydraulic risers that pop in and out,” says Sauder, who’s sitting in the Bad Hats director’s chair for the first time on Narnia.

“The way a child can pick up a stick and say, ‘This is a wand,’ and believe it’s true. We have adults who do that onstage, which allows the audience to fill in the missing pieces. Our budget is often the audience’s imagination.”

While that’s undoubtedly true, Bad Hats fortunes have been on the rise in recent years, especially since the company first came to MTYP in 2019 with Peter Pan. Soulpepper, one of the country’s leading theatre companies, took note of the production, which ran seven times in five years.

That was the beginning of yet another fruitful collaborative relationship, which continues with Soulpepper’s upcoming remount of Alice, featuring Winnipeg’s Colleen Furlan, this month.

“What was a tandem bicycle up until that moment got rocket ships strapped to the side, and off we went,” says Sauder. “The company changed overnight and we’ve been sprinting and inventing as we go ever since.”

On Tuesday afternoon during a media call for Narnia, Sauder, wearing an Adidas tracksuit, was dressed for a marathon as her cast — including Winnipeg’s Duncan Cox, Elena Howard-Scott, Melanie Whyte, Chase Winnicky, Ben Ridd and Kara Joseph — sang, strummed and danced its way through a wintry number.

Sauder was right to use the term “high-octane ensemble work.” The actors in Narnia don’t just say their lines and hit their marks; they play guitar, violin, piano and electric bass as they make their way into the wardrobe.

To Sauder, Narnia marks the third entry into a Bad Hats-MTYP trilogy, each dealing with time and age.

“Peter Pan was about the moment we realize we have to grow up. Alice was about what happens when we peek into adulthood. And Narnia is about the changing seasons of our lives.”

After Narnia premières this week, Sauder won’t have much time to stick around and rest: she’s playing multiple roles in the Soulpepper production of Alice.

“I’ll open this show and the next day jump on a plane to Toronto,” she says.

Onto the next story.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com