Have you ever contemplated the enormous truth to be found in a librarians due-date stamper?
It contains every date that ever was, says the Librarian in Glen Bergers Underneath the Lintel, a curiously funny drama about lifes most curious stuff. Your birth can be found in the revolving numbers, as can your death. Spin a date, any date, and the Librarian can tell you something about it.
Its all in here. All the joys and trials of history, he says (or will say) over 10 nights of the Vancouver Fringe Festival.
January 25, 1971? Thats the day when Helen Shattock is walking her dog in Dayton, Ohio [and] a frozen block of urine from the lavatory of a Pan Am jet falls, and hits her on the head, killing her instantly.
Of course, the type of mind that retains such arcane facts is not a mind at peace. And such a mind can go down many serpentine paths when it contemplates the arrival of a book thats 113 years overdue. The wheels on the stamp go round and round....
Its a heros journey of a nebbish little librarian whose horizon of life doesnt extend beyond the stack of books in front of him, says David Cameron, the one man behind KingBaby Productions version of the popular one-man play. (Its been translated into six languages and the Librarians home town, Hoopdorf, Holland, has become a pilgrimage for fans. Richard Schiff, Toby of West Wing fame, played the Librarian in the West End version.)
The Librarian, who prides himself on an encyclopedic memory, is thrown into turmoil when he cant figure out where the book has been for all these years. And why is it being returned now? By whom? He simply must find out.
He thinks hes on the track of a higher truth, says Cameron, who won won the best male actor award for the role at the Theatre BC festival. (The production, directed by his wife Jackie Minns, also garnered five honourable mentions.) He has to tell the story to free his soul.
In following the clues, including a drycleaning slip found tucked into the pages of the overdue book, the Librarian comes to believe that that mysterious A who borrowed the book is none other than Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew who is cursed to wander the earth until the Second Coming after mocking Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion.
I love the character, this person who thinks hes so smart and yet gets tripped up by life, says Cameron.
Its also the perfect sort of play for the Fringe Festival, in part because theres only one character and a minimal set. A challenge for an actor, even one as ambidextrous as Cameron, its like going on a ride at Playland. Youre a different person when you get off. I need deprogramming at the end of the play.
Cameron and Minns thrive on being part of the Fringe. For all its intensity, all the performers get to piggyback on each others energy, creating a whole that is bigger than its dozens of parts.
The Fringe Festival marks the end of the Underneath the Lintel run for Kingbaby, which will now focus on creating its next original production. Its Mad Mabels Christmas is a perennial favourite, especially in their hometown of Bowen Island, and La Vita Grande won best comedy at the Victoria Fringe Festival several years ago.
Underneath the Lintel is at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre (1895 Venebles) on Sept. 5-8 and 10-15 at various times. Tickets at VancouverFringe.com.
Eleven days and 91 shows. If anyone can do it, its the Vancouver Fringe Festival. From Sept. 5 to 15, you see some fantastic independent theatre, laugh, cry, experience free live music, meet kindred spirits, stuff yourself with Vancouvers finest food truck fare, and stagger home fat and happy. All you have to do is buy a ticket.
