ELIZABETH REX
by timothy findlay, with additions from the ensemble // directed by ted witzel // livestreamed by theatre@york from the faire and fecan theatre when COVID shut us all down.
timothy findlay imagines an intimate meeting between a group of players and queen elizabeth i, who has ordered a command performance of much ado about nothing as she awaits the execution of a former lover, the earl of essex. with wit and poetry, findlay explores the entanglement of love, desire, and gender identity.
march 18, 2020:
two months ago i took a 3am shuttle from the banff centre to fly back to toronto to begin work with a group of graduating artists at york university, on their final show of their time in training. i met a group of astonishingly sensitive, engaged, thoughtful, angry, smart, sharp, passionate artists, who were looking for something to channel their rage, their grief, their craft, and their bewilderment into.
ELIZABETH REX wasn’t my choice, or many of theirs. when we started it seemed like a quaint, polite, white af period piece, but over two months we tapped around the covers of this text until we found a way in. and when we did, these artists—designers, actors, technicians, SMs—took that text by storm. they filled it with soul and revolutionary spirit.
last week hard news came fast and furious. we managed to squeeze out a livestreamed dress / sharing / cl-opening show just before the gates shut on sunday night, on an empty york campus. it felt like zombies were coming. it felt like the string quartet on the titanic. it felt like an act of radical hope.
after spending last week with 70+ people working on the show, i’m self-isolating. but if these feel like end times, these artists are just getting started. watch the fuck out.
we added an epilogue to the show that morning. the last words of the night gutted me then and they still do now:
“when the revolution comes, i hope i fuck shit up. i just wanna change the world.”
featuring madison baines, quinn finnigan, lilli furfaro, justine harper, cassandra henry, emily herridge, kat khan, davinder malhi, sanskruti marathe, michael mcneil, reid millar, giulia pittiglio, katia st.-jean, anoja vigneswaran, christa-marie waugh.
written by timothy findlay. directed by ted witzel. assistant directed by amy kingston + céleste lacroix. set by hannah stevens. costumes by ellie koffman. lights by ella theisinger. sound by julia carrano. projections by emily hughes. stage managed by michelle kwan.