Last weekend, York’s fourth-year acting conservatory students were hard at work on their performance of The Stronger Variations.
Inspired by an August Strindberg play written in 1889, The Stronger Variations followed a similar structure to the musical form “theme and variation” and touched on themes of love, loyalty, desire, and betrayal.
Director and York professor Allyson McMackon explains that Strindberg’s play acted as the “theme”—the main idea all the variations were built around. “We took this idea and then added to it, subtracted from it, looked at relationships in different ways, different settings, and slightly different circumstances,” McMackon explains.
Theatre@York’s performance of The Stronger Variations guided the audience through an emotional 75-minute journey. A collaborative creation, the performance featured 11 emerging actors from York’s fourth-year acting conservatory, as well as many theatre production students.
Each young actor plays both the role of the betrayer and the betrayed at some point throughout the evening. “At the end of the day, we have all betrayed and been betrayed, we all know a bit about both of these roles. Plumbing where one turns into the other is where things become interesting,” McMackon says.
McMackon suggests Strindberg’s original idea, that of a man and a woman parrying back and forth verbally in a very monologue fashion, is fairly black and white. She believes there is more colour in these relationships. “Things are not so cut and dry,” she says.
She explains that by shifting roles, each actor was able to explore both opposing characters and further navigate their emotional worlds. The Stronger Variations forced the audience to examine their notions of “strength” and what it means to be strong.
The idea of “strength” was shown in various ways, such as a woman falling in an evenly matched fight or a “weak” woman facing her fears. However, McMackon maintains that The Stronger Variations was not designed to establish answers. “It is for people looking for questions, looking for ways of probing who they are, how they view the world, and how they view theatre,” she says.
McMackon originally directed The Stronger Variations with an all-female cast in 2005 as part of the Toronto Film Festival. In 2006, she directed the piece again with two additional male actors. This production was in association with The Harbourfront Centre.
Theatre @ York’s production was an entirely different experience for her. She was able to expand the production as well as the concept of the piece.
The 11 emerging actors, all much younger than her previous casts, came in with arguably less experience regarding love and betrayal. However, their commitment, emotional vulnerability, and individual impulses allowed them to shine a unique new light on The Stronger Variations.
“I am astounded by the commitment of the conservatory cast on a daily basis, and [I] get to experience all the discoveries they make along the way. It’s deeply moving for me,” she says.
