Introducing . . . Tear the Curtain!

Laura Mennell in Tear the Curtain! Photo by Brian Johnson.

The first production of our 2010/2011 season is a world premiere commissioned as part of our Silver Commissions Project. Tear the Curtain! is created in collaboration with the innovative Electric Theatre Company, and this stylish thriller is inspired by the “reel” history of the Stanley Theatre. Experience a multimedia spectacle featuring your favourite Hollywood film noir archetypes: the mob boss, the femme fatale, the hardboiled detective, and his girl Friday.

Jonathon Young in Tear the Curtain! Photo by Brian Johnson.

Tear the Curtain! is a pure hybrid of theatre and feature film. In 1930s Vancouver, where rival crime bosses fight for territory, a jaded critic uncovers the forgotten legacy of a theatrical legend. A suspenseful reimagining of the events that lead to the birth of the historic Stanley Theatre, Tear the Curtain! lays claim to the entire venue —scenes unfold at the ticket window, in the lobby, the dressing rooms, and under the stage. Created by a team of Vancouver’s most talented film and theatre artists, this innovative project promises a standoff at gunpoint between two halves of the Stanley’s past. Does the truth lie somewhere between the stage and screen? Watch the trailer below for a sneak peek!

Tear the Curtain!, which initially stages a battle between cinema and theatre, is ultimately about the eternal struggle for control of our attention. Caught between the forces of the mainstream and avantgarde, the piece is a genre-bending psychological thriller in the style of Charlie Kauffman and David Lynch. It fuses some of the visual sensibilities of 1930s experimental work (such as the silent films of Jean Cocteau and the theatre of Antonin Artaud) with more conventional cinema stereotypes of the 30s and 40s such as the Detective Mystery and the Film Noir.

Tear the Curtain! starts Sep 9 at the Stanley. Buy tickets now!