Kidd Pivot

Revisor

2019-02-28 19:30 2019-03-02 21:00 60 Canada/Eastern 🎟 NAC: Kidd Pivot

https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/18661

Choreographer/director Crystal Pite and playwright/actor Jonathon Young have reinvented dance theatre, and gained the unanimous admiration of both critics and the general public. Following their powerfully moving and highly successful piece Betroffenheit, this next collaboration is a contemporary adaptation of an archetypal comic plot that serves as the basis for stunning choreography. Featuring eight dancers in Pite’s exquisite gestural style, Revisor transcends parody to tackle themes of...

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Babs Asper Theatre,1 Elgin Street,Ottawa,Canada
Feb 28 - Mar 2, 2019
Feb 28 - Mar 2, 2019

≈ 1 hour and 30 minutes · No intermission

Last updated: February 20, 2019

It’s such an honour to bring to Ottawa a vast world of dance, shaped by some of the most gifted and innovative artists working across a broad spectrum of styles and influences. As we continue to search out the best and brightest dance companies to present to you, our wonderfully receptive and enthusiastic audience, we invite you to explore the new and the familiar on this extraordinary journey of life in motion!

Crystal Pite’s artistry is boundless, with one inventive quest after the next. Her extraordinary talent at assembling movement, text, sound, and design has produced multilayered signature creations that redefine the art form. In Revisor, her third collaboration with esteemed writer/theatre artist Jonathon Young, the relationship between people and politics is boldly examined through farce and conflict. Whether devising sweeping creations for the world’s major companies or poignant contemporary language for Kidd Pivot, Pite’s vision and artistic acumen are astounding. Having proudly presented and supported Crystal’s work for more than 20 years, we’re thrilled to welcome her newest creation to our season. NAC Dance is honoured to bring you these performances on the traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Nation, and we gratefully acknowledge them as past, present, and future stewards of this land. Enjoy! 

A Message from the Creators

We began with an old, well-known story about mistaken identity.

The story is based on an anecdote that surfaced in Russia in 1833, and quickly spread. It is now widely accepted as probably true.

In 1836, the story took shape in a five-act play. The play premiered in St. Petersburg before the Czar, who according to reports, laughed and applauded, and is said to have remarked “Everybody gets it, and I most of all!”

The play was in disguise as a comedy.

Underneath the superficial subject of mistaken identity there were, of course, deeper subjects such as deceit, tyranny, greed and corruption. Willful blindness and complicity. Bureaucracy and officialdom. Human suffering. The coming storm. The promise of change. Imminent overthrow. Salvation on the horizon. Retribution just around the corner. Justice at the gate.

There is evidence from the critical response that its arrival on stage was unwelcome; it was said to be unoriginal, improbable, coarse and vulgar. It turned on a stale anecdote everyone knew, it was a rank farce and the characters were mere caricatures. It didn’t matter: the rank farce about mistaken identity quickly took its place as a national institution.

Reports indicate that the playwright of the rank farce raged against the “unctuous, cloying, farcical style” of the original production — a style that nonetheless became convention for decades. The Playwright insisted that he had been misread, and that his text contained an urgent moral indictment, a religious allegory, and a portrait of the universal soul in exile.

(Incidentally, the play is called The Inspector General, or, in the original Russian, Revizor, and the playwright is Nikolai Gogol. Gogol repeatedly tried to revise Revizor to prevent further abuses of his underlying intentions, all in vain.)

Since the 1830s, the play has been translated and adapted countless times. We approached the original text as a matrix for both voice and body and found it to be malleable and resonant. Our quest has been to locate and portray a glimpse of the soul within this most unlikely frame: a well-worn farce about corruption and deceit.

We would like to thank all of our performers and collaborators for their essential contributions to the making of Revisor. They are the lifeblood of our creation; each of them masterful, generous, and truly inspiring. We are deeply grateful.

Jonathon and Crystal

Kidd Pivot

Integrating movement, original music, text, and rich visual design, Kidd Pivot’s performance work is assembled with recklessness and rigour, balancing sharp exactitude with irreverence and risk. Under the direction of internationally renowned Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite, the company’s distinct choreographic language – a breadth of movement fusing classical elements and the complexity and freedom of structured improvisation – is marked by a strong theatrical sensibility and a keen sense of wit and invention.

Kidd Pivot tours extensively around the world with productions such as Betroffenheit (2015), The Tempest Replica (2011), The You Show (2010), Dark Matters (2009), and Lost Action (2006).

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Artistic Director: Crystal Pite 

Associate Artistic Director: Eric Beauchesne

Writer-in-Residence: Jonathon Young

Executive Director: Jim Smith

Producer: Jason Dubois

Associate Producer: Francesca Piscopo

Communications and Marketing Manager: Katherine Chan

Accounts Manager: Ann Hepper

Production Manager: Jeff Harrison

Fundraising Associate: Brent Belsher

Office Manager: Lo McEwan

Administration Assistant: Kevin Locsin

Media Relations: Murray Paterson Marketing Group 

Agents for Kidd Pivot: 
Eponymous (Canada)
Menno Plukker Theatre Agent Inc. (except / à l'exception du Canada )

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Kidd Pivot Board of Directors

President : Guy Riecken 

Vice President: Barry McKinnon

Treasurer: Ainslie Cyopik

Secretary: Dory Dynna

Directors: Valerie Jerome, Derek Porter & Fiona Hanington

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Producing Partners and Funders

Co-produced by Sadler’s Wells (London, UK), Théâtre de la Ville/La Villette (Paris, France), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Banff, Canada), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (North Carolina, US), Canadian Stage (Toronto, Canada), National Arts Centre (Ottawa, Canada), DanceHouse (Vancouver, Canada), Dance Victoria (Victoria, Canada), Danse Danse (Montreal, Canada) and Seattle Theatre Group (Seattle, US).

Revisor

Revisor is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter Program. With this $35M investment, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.

Developed with support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund.

Kidd Pivot benefits from the support of BNP Paribas Foundation for the development of its projects.

Kidd Pivot gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of British Columbia, British Columbia Arts Council, City of Vancouver, and countless individual and business supporters.

Eponymous gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

World Premiere:
February 20, 2019, Vancouver Playhouse, Vancouver, Canada

 

Created by: Crystal Pite & Jonathon Young 

Written by: Jonathon Young

Choreographed and Directed by: Crystal Pite

Original Music and Sound Design: Owen Belton, Alessandro Juliani & Meg Roe

Scenic Design: Jay Gower Taylor

Costume Design: Nancy Bryant

Lighting Design: Tom Visser

Assistant to the Creators: Eric Beauchesne

Dancers: Doug Letheren, Rena Narumi, Matthew Peacock, David Raymond, Ella Rothschild, Cindy Salgado, Jermaine Spivey, Tiffany Tregarthen

Swing: Renée Sigouin

Voices: Kathleen Barr, Ryan Beil, Alessandro Juliani, Nicola Lipman, Scott McNeil, Gerald Plunkett, Meg Roe, Amy Rutherford, Jonathon Young

Voice Director: Meg Roe

Technical Director: Jeff Harrison 

Stage Manager: Isaac Robinson

Show Control Design: Eric Chad

Lighting and Sound Technician: Lukas McCormick

Wig and Wardrobe Coordinator: Stevie Hale Jones

Set and Prop Construction: Great Northern Way Scene Shop

Cutter: Janet Dundas

Costume Assistant: Alaia Hamer

Stitchers: Megan Veaudry, Jen Reid & Christine Pampel

Headpiece Sculptor: Heidi Wilkinson

Company Manager on Tour: Brent Belsher

Executive Producer: Jim Smith

Producer: Jason Dubois

Associate Producer: Francesca Piscopo

Artists

  • bjm-crystal-pite-credit-rolex-by-anoush-abrar
    Choreographed and Directed by Crystal Pite
  • jonathon-young
    Co-creator, Writer Jonathon Young
  • Performer Doug Letheren
  • rena-narumi-credit-four-eyes-website
    Performer Rena Narumi
  • matthew-peacock-1-credit-michael-slobodian
    Performer Matthew Peacock
  • david-raymond-2018-24-credit-michael-slobodian
    Performer David Raymond
  • Performer Ella Rothschild
  • cindy-salgado-2018-24-credit-michael-slobodian
    Performer Cindy Salgado
  • Performer Renée Sigouin
  • jermaine-spivey-2018-10-credit-michael-slobodian
    Performer Jermaine Spivey
  • tiffany-tregarthen-2018-3-credit-michael-slobodian
    Performer Tiffany Tregarthen
  • Composer and Sound Designer Owen Belton
  • Composer, Sound Designer Alessandro Juliani
  • meg-roe
    Composer, Sound Designer Meg Roe
  • jay-gower-taylor-2018
    Scenic Designer Jay Gower Taylor
  • nancybryant
    Costume Designer Nancy Bryant
  • Lighting Designer Tom Visser
  • eric-beauchesne-four-eyes
    Associate Artistic Director Eric Beauchesne

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees