Richard Monette, The Last Season

Festival director retires with faith that 'long after Canadian Idol is dead, there will be Shakespeare'
By Gary Smith
The Hamilton Spectator
(May 12, 2007)

"It's time for new blood."

Richard Monette sits across a cluttered office desk, heaped with the papers and texts that define this season's work. Giving a perplexed shrug at his own bald statement, he looks amazingly benign. Never mind he's been the victim of political intrigue. Never mind the fact he's battled the recalcitrant despots who hold the purse strings for funding of culture in Canada.

Perhaps he's tired battling of the system. Perhaps he's bored locking horns with waspish theatre critics who have worked hard to belittle his accomplishments.

Maybe he's ready to slide into the comfortable skin of a witty elder statesman, someone who can comment from the sidelines once he is liberated from the Stratford Festival hot seat.

It's been 14 years since Monette grasped the reins of Canada's biggest cultural conundrum. He's held on tight in the face of bitter criticism that overlooks the fact he's a populist showman who has turned the Festival into a money-making proposition.

Now that he's about to go gentle into that good night, he's not afraid to fire off some vociferous parting shots.

"Let's face it, this is a public service job that demands attention 24 hours a day. It's no walk in the park. Maybe I'll discover there's life after Stratford. I certainly hope so."

Monette, one of the more brilliant young actors of his generation, starred in landmark productions of plays like Hosanna in Toronto. He bared his body as well as his soul on stage, appearing in naughty little theatre pieces like Oh! Calcutta! and The Dirtiest Show In Town in London's West End. Always, there was some sense of order and intellect about the roles he chose.

He never imagined himself as a theatre administrator and artistic director and, in fact, eschewed the notion of leading Stratford when the idea was first put to him.

"I was having too much fun on stage to retreat behind a desk," he shrugs. "Directing and acting are where it counts for me. The rehearsal hall was always my realm domain."

So what made him capitulate and allow his name to stand for leadership at what could seriously pass for Canada's national theatre?

"A love for Stratford," Monette replies. "A need to see it grow. I've always adored this place. In many ways, caring about this theatre has kept me sane.

"I certainly didn't do this for the money. And it's hardly an easy job. I have faced terrible criticism but I refused to be destroyed by it.

"And no, I haven't had it easy. Certain critics, who shall go nameless, have been on my back from the start. Some of them are failed artists. Some failed in this very theatre. Maybe they're jealous ... or maybe just vicious. I don't know.

"I haven't read reviews now for years. When we reopened the rejuvenated theatre with Camelot, it was a stunning event. And it was a very good show, if I do say so myself. The audiences adored it and filled all the seats. To my remembrance, not one critic liked it. Not one. So just maybe they are out of touch with what the rest of humanity thinks.

'Now when the reviews come out, I say to my staff, 'Is there anything I desperately need to know?' If there isn't, I toss them away.

"There was a little plot to depose me organized by a few of these critics. Well, it failed. Fortunately, I had the support of the board of directors. I never capitulated to the pressure. I'm pretty proud of that.

"You can read all about my time here in my book. It's coming out in June, and while it's a tell-all story -- after all, I don't want to be sued -- it's still pretty damn truthful. And you know, there's always the possibility of part two once I've slipped into my dotage."

A drop-dead handsome young man, Monette fell in love with theatre when he was barely 15. Growing up in Montreal, he had a troubled childhood, living with parents who fought and drank. Theatre was a way of escape. Monette saw his first Stratford show in 1959 and was seduced by the wisdom and genius of Shakespeare.

"I was in awe," he shrugs. "The Stratford experience was like nothing I'd known before."

At 19, Monette made his Toronto debut playing Hamlet at the late, lamented Crest Theatre in Toronto.

"I don't suppose I was ready for that," he grins. "But I did it all the same.

"I had no impression of myself as handsome. Too many people kept saying you're not good looking enough (for) this or that. I tended to believe them.

"Well, it's just a face, I suppose. And in a mirror, it's not alive. It takes animation to make a face handsome, you see.

"I was very shy, even at age 26, and I knew I had to make a break, to come to terms with my own body. If I didn't, I could never really be an artist.

"So I literally exposed myself in shows like Oh! Calcutta! in London. It was a case of being naked as an actor -- not just nude, you understand -- but naked. Because of that experience I was able to do so much more. In many ways, it was a real breakthrough for me. Oh! Calcutta! forced me to expose my private self in a very public way. I mean, here I was, this shy boy who wanted to act Shakespeare, baring everything I had in a stage burlesque that wasn't very profound at all.

"Well, you're naked in Shakespeare, too," Monette grins. "There's nothing to hide behind if you really want to be good.

"I was so unbelievably naive. I mean, I called everybody Mr. or Miss when I started out. I was serious and conscientious to a fault."

Even when he took over Stratford, Monette continued to act, enjoying the stage until a strange bout of stage fright took over his being and left him fearful of performance.

"It came on all of a sudden. I've no idea why. Ten years later it left. I think perhaps it was the pressure of everything else. When I decided to return to the stage, I was fine until I chose to do Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. My voice just gave out. I was suddenly speaking like Mickey Mouse. It was terrible. Maybe I was exhausted. Maybe it was an allergy. Who knows?"

Over the years, Monette has made many serious friendships with the actors he works with at Stratford.

"Many have meant a lot to me. There's Bill Hutt, who I love dearly. We get together, drink a bottle of wine and holler at each other a lot. Then there's Martha Henry, who has just been so supportive over the years. These are giants of the Canadian theatre."

Monette smiles when asked about the major accomplishments he feels he's made over the Stratford years.

"There's been the physical renewal of the Avon and the Festival theatres," he shrugs.

"And then there's the miracle of audience growth. We came out of the red," he says with a laugh.

"There's also the building of the 260-seat Studio Theatre that allows for new work and high-risk plays. And I must not forget the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training. This is essential to the ongoing artistic success of classical theatre at Stratford.

"We live in a country and a culture that doesn't take classical theatre seriously enough," Monette says. "That's rather sad. There are just no reasonable subsidies for theatres like ours. We have to function like a commercial theatre when really we're not.

"In Europe and in Britain, serious theatre is seriously subsidized. Here it's a laugh. We bring in $123 million every year, we pay $65 million in taxes and they give us $1.7 million for our trouble. That's a wonderful return now isn't it," he glowers.

"You know, in the end a society isn't remembered or revered for its accountants -- it's the culture that remains. It's our artists who give us a profile.

"There will always be a need for classical theatre," Monette bristles. "Long after Canadian Idol is dead and buried, Shakespeare will go on. He addresses all the great universal problems."

In his final year as head honcho, Monette hasn't made it easy for himself. He's directing Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors and Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband.

"Ideal Husband speaks to us about political corruption and marriage at a time when these matters are splayed across newspapers across the country. The more things change the more they're the same, really.

"And Comedy of Errors is something I love dearly. I remember being at Ephesus and looking around and seeing just how connected that great site was to Shakespeare's comedy. I'm putting that into my production."

Monette shrugs when asked what he thinks of the fact that a triumvirate of artistic directors has been hired to replace him.

"I think it's excessive," he says, "and it's actually four when you add administrative director Antoni Cimolino into the mix. Well, we'll see how it works won't we?

"I think of myself as a survivor," Monette says. "I think in this country, like many others, we like to destroy people who have been successful. Well, I'm not allowing that.

"You know, there were three wretched women at one Toronto paper covering food, ballet and theatre and they wanted to topple everything in sight. So many of these critics have no sense of humour about themselves. None whatsoever. Me? I can laugh at them and at myself, too, come to that.

"Don't ask me what I'm going to do come the end of this season," Monette says, sitting forward in his chair. "I don't know. And that's the honest truth. I've got seven months to go, you know, and every minute seems like an hour. Yet, at the end, it will seem to have flown in the twinkling of an eye."

Gary Smith has written on theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator for more than 25 years. He has seen Monette starkers in every way -- physically in Oh! Calcutta! in London and spiritually and emotionally in Hamlet and Hosanna in Toronto.

SWAN SONGS

This Rough Magic, A Memoir by Richard Monette as told to David Prosser ($40) will be available from booksellers and the Stratford Festival box office in June. Call 1-800-567-1600 to order a copy from the Stratford Festival.

Designated performances of The Comedy of Errors followed by discussions with Monette will take place June 19, July 13 and Aug. 12 . Call 1-800-567-1600.

One Man In His Time: A Celebration of Richard Monette is an exhibition of costumes, props, photos and memorabilia associated with his career. Exhibition Hall, Discovery Centre across from the Festival Theatre Stratford. Suggested $5 donation.

A Salute to Richard Monette. An evening of performances, songs and memories. Monday, Sept. 17 at 8.30 p.m. Avon Theatre. Tickets $35 to $50. Call 1-800-567-1600.