≈ 90 minutes · No intermission
Last updated: October 31, 2023
Director’s Note
The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time, is Walter’s letter to the world. But rather than a memoir (which looks backward) his epistle also looks forward, to illuminate one’s calling in life.
Over the past four years, Walter and I have worked rigorously and tenderly to refine and sculpt the text for performance. Taking over 40 years of material and crafting it into a new version for 2023 was and is always the challenge. Walter wants a text, that not only retains aspects of earlier versions but includes new writing and new perspectives. To transform hundreds of pages of material to a fulsome but lean text for a ninety-minute performance was no easy task. As Walter says, “It has been like taking a chisel and hammer to a large block of marble to reveal the sculpture already within.”
I am honoured to be invited by Walter to direct this production. I am forever grateful for the chance to learn from his epistle and to walk with him inside of it. I did so in partnership with the formidable designers Andy Moro, Adrienne Danrich O’Neill and Wayne Hawthorn; I have rarely felt such connection amongst peers, co-conspirators and guides. And lastly, no play would ever be made without the care and diligent holding of our stage managers,
Melissa Rood, Martine Beland, Fiona Jones and the incomparable Alison Crosby, it’s hard to imagine that any play could be more satisfyingly made.
The NAC English Theatre/Tarragon Theatre revival of the NAC English Theatre/Neptune Theatre co-production
First written and performed by Walter Borden in 1986 as Tightrope Time Ain’t Nuthin’ More Than Some Itty Bitty Madness Between Your Twilight & Your Dawn, the work was one of the pioneering Canadian plays to explore and express homosexuality from a Black perspective.
Saturating the work with a new spectrum of wisdom and perspective gained over the ensuing 35 years, Borden has created a diary of imagination and experience. He now delivers an invigorating, tour-de-force performance through the voices of 10 dynamic characters, each of whom was crucial in reflecting his philosophy on the journey of life.
The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time is a profound opportunity to witness a legendary Black Canadian artist, ushering the audience on an intimate journey through the town square, the church and through the mind of a Black homosexual man. This work gifts audiences a rare occasion to behold the resiliency and dynamism of the human spirit.
The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time is staged by arrangement with Kish Iqbal, GGA, www.ggagency.ca.
Artists
Selected Theatre Credits: The Adventures of A Black Girl in Search of God (Centaur Theatre/NAC/Black Theatre Workshop); Name in Vain (Tarragon Theatre); Harlem Duet (Tarragon Theatre/ Stratford Festival); A Few Good Men (Theatre Aquarius); Tragedie of Lear (eponymous company); Father Comes Home From The Wars (Soulpepper); Of Mice and Men (Saint John Theatre Company); Noises Off (Neptune Theatre); On Golden Pond (Victoria Playhouse Petrolia); House of Atrius Trilogy, The Odyssey, Henry VIII, Duchess of Malfi, Orpheus Descending (Stratford Festival).
Selected Film and Television Credits: Feast of All Saints, Nurse Fighter Boy, Gerontophilia, Compton Manor.
Upcoming: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Neptune Theatre / Mirvish Productions).
Awards: Order of Canada, Order of Nova Scotia, Queen Elizabeth II Golden
and Diamond Jubilee Medals, two Honorary Doctorates, Honorary Associateship (Canadian Association for Theatre Research).
Peter was Artistic Director of English Theatre at Canada’s National Arts Centre from 2005-2012. Some favorite productions include: The Wrong Son by Allen Cole, Copper Thunderbird by Marie Clements, Congreve’s The Way of the World, and King Lear with Auggie Schellenberg. Peter has directed over 250 productions since 1984; their own plays and adaptations have been staged at Stratford, Shaw, National Arts Centre and the Segal Centre. He is the recipient of numerous theatre awards across Canada, and in 2009, was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Selected Theatre Credits: The Hooves Belonged to the Deer by Makram Ayache (In Arms Collective, Edmonton/Tarragon Theatre, Toronto); The Shadow of a Doubt by Edith Wharton (Shaw Festival); At the Beginning of Time by Steve Galluccio (Centaur Theatre, Montreal); The Man That Got Away by Martin Julien (Buddies in Bad Times, Toronto); The Sylvia Effect, writer and director (Theatre Kingston); Missing by Marie Clements and Brian Current (City Opera Vancouver); Hadrian by Rufus Wainwright and Daniel MacIvor (Canadian Opera Company)
Upcoming: Dion by Ted Dykstra and Steven Mayoff (Coalmine Theatre, Toronto) and Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold (Edmonton Opera).
Credits
Walter Borden
Playwright and Performer
Peter Hinton-Davis
Director
Andy Moro
Set, Costume, Lighting,
and Projection Designer
Adrienne Danrich O’Neill
Sound Designer and Composer
Wayne Hawthorne
Associate Sound Designer
Fiona Jones
Stage Manager
Alison Crosby
Assistant Stage Manager
NAC Production Team
Azrieli Studio Team
Head Technician
Stephane Boyer
Assistant Head technician
Leigh Utley
Technical Director
Jesse Carroll
Head Projection
David Milliard
Stage Crew
Ray Budavari
Head Wardrobe
Sarah Waghorn
Projectionists, Wardrobe Mistresses, Masters and Attendants are members of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 471.
The National Arts Centre is a member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.
NAC English Theatre Team
Managing Director
David Abel
Artistic Director
Nina Lee Aquino
Community Outreach Lead
Rose-Ingrid Benjamin
Learning Coordinator
Aimee Bouchard
ASL Interpreter Consultant
Carmelle Cachero
Marketing Strategist
Bar Clement
Communications Strategist
Sean Fitzpatrick
Senior Producer
Alexandra Lunney
Senior Marketing Manager
Bridget Mooney
Associate Producer, Artistic Projects
Judi Pearl
Company Manager
Samira Rose
Administrative Coordinator
Monika Seiler
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees