Bernice Afriyie | Arts Editor
Featured image: See Christel Bartelse on October 27 and 28 at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. | Courtesy of All Kidding Aside
Christel Bartelse brings her Toronto and Hamilton Fringe Festival hit All Kidding Aside to audiences at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. On for a short time only, October 27 at 7:30 pm and October 28 at 9 pm, this one-woman show packs in plenty of heart and laughs. All Kidding Aside is part of a double bill that is being produced alongside Izad Etemadi’s Love with Leila. Excalibur recently chatted with Bartelse about All Kidding Aside and what audiences can expect.
Excalibur: Can you tell me about yourself and your decision to get into the performance arts?
Christel Bartelse: Ever since I can remember, I was interested in the performing arts. My parents put me in dance at the age of three and I stuck with it for over 17 years. I always wanted to act, but I was so committed to dance so I didn’t get into acting until high school drama.
I always had a passion for performing and being on stage. I used to make up sketches as a little girl and show them to my parents and my neighbours. I was also exposed to the arts at an early age and was fortunate that my parents took me to a lot of shows as a kid—the ballet, theatre, music—so that’s where I got the bug from. Watching performers on stage, I knew I wanted to do that. When the decision came after high school regarding what I wanted to do, or where I wanted to go, it wasn’t even an option to do anything else. I just knew I was going to pursue a career in the arts. However, my idea of how or what I would pursue changed. It’s always taking twists and turns.
E: What drove you to create All Kidding Aside?
CB: I knew I was ready to create a new solo show. I had been touring my show ONEymoon for years, which I continue to do, but something in me was hungry to create a new show. After getting married in 2014, everyone started asking us when we were going to have kids. I thought this was such an insensitive question: when—not if—and it wouldn’t stop. I was on the fence about whether to have kids. I still am. So this is where the inspiration came from. I was talking to numerous women who also weren’t sure whether or not they were going to have kids and a lot of my friends were having babies and talking about how hard it was. I just knew this was a universal topic and I had to write about it.
E: Do you feel as though women experience the same pressure surrounding whether or not to have children than women of previous generations did?
CB: Not at all. I feel previous generations didn’t really think about having kids or not, it’s what you did. It was just expected. I feel now we are so focused on our careers. Our generation was told we could do anything, become anything, and in that regard we put having kids on the back burner, even getting married. We’re career driven.
However I feel because of that, some women are in their 40s and then decide they do want the lifestyle of marriage and kids and they feel they missed that opportunity. But now as women, we have the choice and more opportunity to not be defined by whether we have children or not. I still think there is a bit of a stigma around women who choose not to have kids. It’s becoming more common, but there are still people who don’t understand it. I continue to get silence from people or confusion when they ask how many kids I have and I respond with none. They immediately are silenced because they think something may be wrong such as infertility or marital issues, not the fact that up until now, I have made the choice to not procreate. However, I think what hasn’t changed is that we do continue to put pressure on women in our society to be it all: friend, wife, girlfriend, sister, coworker, mother, boss. No women can handle the pressures of doing it all and doing it all perfectly.
E: With all that in mind, was it challenging creating this one-woman show?
CB: It’s always challenging creating a new solo show. It’s one of the hardest, craziest, exhausting, enjoyable and exciting things one can do. It’s a process. I do have to say, after having created three previous solo shows, it gets a little easier because you know what’s about to come, but it’s never easy. Luckily, I was blessed early on with meeting my director, Michelle Polak, and I knew she was the perfect choice to work on this show and direct it. She made this entire process so much fun, but she pushed me a lot. I learned so much from her. She inspired me and forced for me to take a lot of risks. However, the show is never done. It’s always evolving.
E: How do you use humour to tackle issues that are important to you?
CB: I find as a comedic performer, it’s our job to find the funny in things that pain us. I try to find the humour in everything that I do, because that’s the best way to deal with it. I just write what I know and write about things that are close to me and try to find the levity in the situation. Then again, what I find funny may not be what someone else finds funny and therein lies the challenge. I also know and spend time with a lot of funny people who inspire me and keep me sharp.
E: What would you like the audience to take away from your production?
CB: With all of my shows, I want them to walk away happy, changed and entertained. I really strive to create high energy, engaging solo shows. With this show in particular, I want the audience to walk away and think. Be more open to understanding that not all women want to follow the “norm” of what is expected of them. To understand that we need to stop putting pressures on women and let them decide what is best for them. And overall of course, I want them to have a great time. And to stop asking me when I am having children!
