The long-standing theatre company’s latest production is a series of vignettes diving into familial relationships
Photo via https://whonstage.weebly.com/.
What does family mean to you? How would you define it? By biological relation? By friendships? The word ‘family’ can have many definitions. This multitude of meanings is the concept behind Baile de la Familia (Dance of the Family), a play created and produced by the men of the William Head Institution — a minimum-security correctional facility in Metchosin, B.C.
William Head on Stage (WHoS), established in 1981, is Canada’s only theatre company in Canada run by incarcerated artists and performers.
Baile de la Familia (Dance of the Family) is a relatively simple show. Comprising 12 monologues interspersed with songs and dancing, the cast of 12 relay to the audience what family means to them. “Because it’s family, we’re looking at a lot of different kinds of relationships, a lot of relationships in that word, which is very large.” said Deb Williams, director of the production, about the chosen theme for this year’s show.
The name and concept was decided by WHoS’ board in April, and Williams was brought on in June. Williams said they began by working on “simple exercises in memory, and people just wrote about what they remembered and what family was to them, and then it got more specific.”
The key in taking a personal story and transforming it into a theatrical piece, according to Williams, is to make it active. “It’s not a lot of, ‘I was, I’m thinking, I’m remembering’, it’s more active –– this is what happened, this is what the result was. A lot of facts, fewer feelings, because you trust that your audience has feelings and can figure out the feelings from the facts,” she said. “So, you’re treating the audience like they’re intelligent, and that they have had life experiences too.”
The stories themselves were relatively short, and displayed the individuality and diverse backgrounds of the actors. Many were quiet scenes spent with family, such as dancing with a mother, a conversation spent with a family or a friend, a motorcycle race, and so on. One performer spoke entirely in rhyme. Another sang. In addition to playing a central character in their own respective stories, the men acted as background characters in those of others, portraying family members or, in one instance, a house full of cats.
The men usually stayed on stage the entire performance, even if they weren’t directly involved in the scene. Their positioning on stage gave the effect that everyone —including the actors who weren’t directly involved, as well as the audience — were sharing an intimate moment together. Even when a performer flubbed a line, the idiosyncrasies of the performance added to this atmosphere of storytelling. Keeping the actors on stage was a small staging choice, but looking back, an extremely effective one.
“I think it’s because it’s a really basic need that we all have to be seen and to be heard,” said Williams on the impact of WHoS. “Most of these guys haven’t been seen or heard for a really long time. But I think this is in the general public –– that people go through their lives feeling completely unheard and that no one’s witnessing who they are. But it is such a basic human need to belong, to be seen, to be heard, understood, ” she said.
“We have socialized men in this sort of dominant society to not talk about their stories, not to feel about their stories, and not to show very much.” said Williams. “The first obstacle is to just get past the idea that this is valuable, that the stories will be held, and if you don’t want to tell them again you don’t have to, that you’re safe telling these stories, that other people have experienced these things, [and] that you’re not alone.”
Given the standing ovation after the opening night’s performance, it’s safe to say that these vulnerable stories were well-received.
Baile de la Familia (Dance of the Family) is playing at the William Head Institution on Fridays and Saturdays until Nov. 1. Tickets can be purchased at the WHoS website.
