Should you be shocked?
Published Saturday November 7th, 2009
Latest Hairy Tease production provocative but promises lots of laughs
Small town conservatism meets big city glitz in the latest Hairy Tease production, aptly titled The Mind with the Dirty Man.
Hairy Tease Productions founder and show director Michael Granville says the Moncton-based theatre company's newest show is both provocative and funny, but carries a heartwarming message.
"It's a little edgy, but it's not tasteless," Michael says. "It has a strong message about communication and relationships."
The 1976 Jules Tusca comedy tells the story of a conflicted family caught between a traditionally conservative father and his adult film director son.
"It's all about family conflict, hypocrisy and the trials and tribulations of marriage all wrapped up in a comedy," Michael says. "It shows a lot about small-town morals and how they can be misconstrued."
Wayne Stone, played by Lawren Campbell, is the head of his small town's movie review board and a well-respected member of his conservative community. His quiet, peaceful life is rudely disrupted with news that the local theatre has been sold to a racy New York film director.
Wayne's life is further catapulted into absurdity when he discovers that the director is his son, Clayton, who plans to premiere his latest adult film 'The Shoe Fetish' at the town's theatre, bringing along the film's star, Miss Divina, as his girlfriend. Father and son go to head-to-head in a series of heated battles, mediated by the mother, played by Aloma Jardine.
"She's the peacemaker in the family, but she's not used to speaking her mind," Aloma says of her character, Alma Stone. "She's a typical repressed 1970s housewife, but there's more to her than meets the eye."
Aloma admits she was a bit wary of signing on with the play because of its reference to pornography, but fell in love with the story's strong sense of family after reading the entire script.
"That's the bluff because the main crux of the play is the importance of communication in a family and how hard it is to tell the people you love how much you really care about them," she says. "I think everybody can relate to that."
Aloma is part of a colourful cast of Hairy Tease rookies and veterans, including Lawren Campbell, one of the group's original actors and one of few members with formal theatre training.
"I'm really glad Lawren is playing my husband, Wayne," Aloma says, "because to play a husband and wife you need to achieve that level of comfort with someone, and we've been working together for quite some time so we're very comfortable together."
Lawren, who has been with the theatre group since its inception in 2004, says his ornery character is far from his own personality, but he can certainly relate to the concepts of parenting presented in the play.
"I never thought I'd play a character that's that much of a stretch from who I am but, as a parent and a strict parent at that, I can certainly find traces of myself in Wayne," he says. "He reminds me of a lot of the men I knew growing up in the '70s -- he's moral and religious to a fault and I think the audience will relate to that too and see their parents and relatives in him."
Like the majority of Hairy Tease volunteers, Lawren works full-time, so the group fits rehearsals into evenings and weekends during the months preceding each show.
Along with Campbell and Jardine are actors Kevin Wood, Jane Messervier, Carol McIsaac, Wayne Fairchild and newcomer Alyssa Delle Palme.
"It's just so much fun that you find the time to do it," Campbell says. "It's stress relieving and it's a lot of fun to put on."
The Mind with the Dirty Man is the theatre company's 12th production in five years. A former drama teacher at Harrison Trimble High School, Michael Granville created Hairy Tease Productions after noticing a lack of community theatre in the Moncton area.
He compiled a group of former Harrison Trimble and Moncton High graduates, along with a few local business people and District 2 teachers, and the theatre company took off, presenting its first-ever production, Send Me No Flowers, in October 2004.
The group quickly gained a reputation for their hilarious theatre, choosing comedies such as Love, Sex and the IRS, Who's Under Where?, Mirth & Melancholy, and last April's popular production of Pajama Tops.
When thinking of a name for his newly-founded company, Michael felt it was important to incorporate his ties with Harrison Trimble High. As Harrison Trimble students refer to themselves as "Harry Tee's" after the first letters of the school's name; Michael took these abbreviations and turned them into something uniquely provocative and comical.
"I worked at Harrison Trimble for 30 years, so I wanted the group to have some connection with the school," he says.
Michael says the Metro Moncton community is at the heart of Hairy Tease's success, providing them with free rehearsal space, props and costumes.
The group's production venue for the past nine shows, Theatre l'Escaouette, allows them to use their 210-seat black box theatre free of charge.
"We've got a big group of faithful patrons and we have so much support from the community," he says. "We really couldn't exist as easily without their support."
The group has certainly shown its appreciation, doling out nearly $18,000 to local charities and through its high school bursary program, which awards several Moncton-area graduates $2,000 to pursue theatre studies at a post-secondary level.
While the group's commitment to charity is important, Lawren says producing top-notch comedy theatre remain's its priority.
"Giving the money away to charity is a side effect," he says. "We don't want people to think that because the money's going to charity the quality isn't going to be high. Our priority is putting on a professional quality performance and that's what brings people back to our shows."
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