By Jasmine Solomonescu
In the shadow of the St. Patrick’s Basilica on Kent Street, a small sign quietly announces an upcoming production by the Tara Players.
The amateur theatre company, which promotes Irish drama, will close its 1999-2000 season with The Broken Jug, a black comedy set in Ireland during the 1840’s famine.
“The circumstances of the time were not particularly comic, but the circumstances of the play are,” says Tara president Geoff White. He says the contrast between the petty concerns displayed in a courtroom and the plight of those in the countryside is what gives the play its satiric force.
Since its founding in 1976, the company has staged classic, modern and contemporary drama and comedies about Ireland.
With about 50 regular members, the company may be small by some standards, but the players put as much heart into their acting as they would if they were performing at the Hill of Tara, where the high kings of Ireland lived from ancient times to the 6th century. Tara was also the ecclesiastical seat of St. Patrick in the 5th century.
The Tara Players’ dedication to Irish theatre is obvious even to playgoers who are unaware of the origin of the company’s name.
At Patrick’s Hall, where the players regularly perform, the symbols of Ireland abound, from the shamrock painted on the curtain overhanging the stage, to the green trim of the doors and windows. There’s even a small Irish pub at the back of the hall, and a table laid out with Irish soda bread, tea and coffee at intermission.
Actor/director Orrin Kerr says there is “a strong smattering” of Irish people among the company’s members. But it is a love of the stage that draws actors such as Cheryl Zimmer and Rob Henderson to the Tara Players.
“I can’t get away from (acting),” says Zimmer, who starred in A Touch of the Poet by Eugene O’Neill. “I feel there is something missing when I’m not on stage.”
Co-star Henderson says acting complements his day job with the Canadian Dental Assistants Association. “I’m a director all day long, so at night I like to be directed.”
This enthusiasm is part of what has kept the company going for so long. White says the company plans to mark its 25th anniversary by making the 2000-2001 season a “retrospective season that will produce plays we’ve previously done, or authors whose works have already appeared on our stage.”
In the meantime, the players are rehearsing The Broken Jug, by Irish novelist-playwright John Banville, which they plan to stage at the Acting Irish International Theatre Festival in Toronto in May.