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Perth has become a summertime home for Toronto’s Scott Clarkson, a performer now playing his sixth season at the Classic Theatre Festival with his starring role in the uproarious George Bernard Shaw comedy Arms and the Man, running until August 14 at 54 Beckwith Street East. “Working at the Festival has been some of the most challenging theatre I’ve done, and hugely rewarding,” Clarkson says.  “Perth has always fed the part of me that loves a quieter pace, beautiful architecture and green spaces, and a bit of history too.  And I’ve met so many wonderful people here: company members and volunteers, local merchants and theatregoers. I love this town.” Since 2011, Clarkson has reveled in roles “that have all satisfied something in me, a desire to communicate with the writers and actors and other theatre makers of the mid-20th century. It’s given me a chance to explore parts played by wonderful actors on stage and in film: Hume Cronyn, Henry Fonda, Charles Boyer, Bob Cummings, even Kevin Kline (in Arms and the Man).” Clarkson’s role as Captain Bluntschli in Arms and the Man is a homecoming of sorts, reminding the veteran actor of his study in New York’s HB Studio, where he first encountered Shaw’s work. Clarkson says he very much likes the character he inhabits for his six weeks in Perth. “I feel Shaw speaking his truth through him, and it’s remarkable what Shaw has these people say at the height of the Victorian era!” he says. “Arms and the Man allows Bluntschli to show us the truth of a military life behind the romantic facade. The Captain has served nearly fifteen years, and the cost of this becomes quickly apparent.  Beyond the obvious exhaustion and fear that comes with losing a major battle and being on the run, he has of course seen and likely done many horrible things.  No Charge of the Light Brigade bravura for him. If he has anything in common with a literary figure it’s the hero of Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front.  Bluntschli figured out long ago that heroism can get you killed, and chocolate will keep you alive better than revolver cartridges. I see traces of him in the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup, in Catch-22, in M*A*S*H.” Clarkson says audiences can expect a lot of comedy in Arms and the Man, as Shaw “wrote with wit and insight and dared to pose questions about how people lived their daily lives.  He questioned everything.  Why is it we marry?  Why do we go to war?  Why do we value the things we do, and at what cost?  He doesn’t strike me as a 19th-century writer; he was pointing the way to the next century, laying the foundation for all the artists who wouldn’t accept a party line, from any government or church or military authority.  I wish he was here today.” When Clarkson isn’t performing at the Classic Theatre Festival, he is involved in many other creative pursuits, from stage work in Toronto to… Continue reading

Producing professional summer theatre in Perth since 2010 with the Classic Theatre Festival has been a magical experience, one that feels like an annual family reunion as we reconnect with the friendly, familiar faces making the annual trek to this heritage town to enjoy our productions from the golden age of Broadway and the London Stage. While plays of this era – which this summer include Neil Simon’s comedy I Ought to Be In Pictures, George Bernard Shaw’s satire Arms and the Man, and the J.B. Priestley’s mystery An Inspector Calls – leave audiences with the satisfaction of being well-entertained, there’s another side to the Festival that roots us in our community and provides audience members with a deep feeling of human connection. That other side is made up of a number of Classic Theatre Festival program initiatives that benefit community organizations, provide meaningful training, mentorship, and employment opportunities for young people in a job-starved rural environment, and open up free seats to socially and economically marginalized community members. Since our founding in 2010, the Festival has partnered with groups ranging from women’s shelters and libraries to refugee sponsorship groups and service clubs seeking an end to polio to raise over $60,000 through a series of community benefit performances. Bringing together a committed community for an evening’s entertainment creates a special buzz in the theatre, while providing other audience members with an educational opportunity about getting involved with these worthy organizations. Meantime, young people in our Youth Theatre Training Program work with professional artists to develop a series of theatrical historic walking tours that bring to life the stories and characters of Perth’s colourful heritage history. Many of training program’s performers first start out with us in the early spring with an annual touring play focused on youth issues, promoting discussions on how to make our communities more teenager-friendly through our Listen Up, Lanark County! project. They then graduate to take on roles in the summertime’s annual Perth through the Ages, a “play that moves” and which runs five mornings a week from 11 am to 12 noon. As Perth celebrates its 200th anniversary, this year’s story focuses on relations between early European settlers and the Algonquin people.  The Algonquins’ 10,000 years of history and experience in this area proved invaluable in helping the settlers survive their first years, including introducing them to the wonders of something called maple syrup. The Friday night Lonely Ghosts Walk (7-8 pm) will feature a story of Perth’s growth as a distillery town, and the feisty women who lobbied for temperance and fought alcohol’s ill effects. For many audience members, a signature initiative of the Festival is the Save-a-Seat program, born out of a long family tradition. My parents (Bernard Behrens and Deborah Cass) were part of that post-war generation that founded professional Canadian theatre, appearing in the early years of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and touring with the Canadian Players when not appearing on CBC radio and TV. As products of the Depression,… Continue reading