Sidekicks & Secret Identities: Monkeyman’s at it Again!

Just when you thought that all there was to Toronto Theatre were mega-musicals like Aladdin and Wicked, here comes a pleasant surprise. Boasting as “Toronto’s Geekiest Theatre Company”, Monkeyman Productions burst on the scene in 2008, and to our delight they’ve spent that time pushing the boundaries of what independent theatre can do. With past productions like Headshots and Healing Potions, this company takes the bull by the horns when it comes to issues like keeping Canadian theatre youth-friendly, engaging, and fun.

The team’s latest production, Sidekicks and Secret Identities, is a series of short plays that tackle the conventions of the superhero genre. On the writing team for this fabulous production is our very own member of the GEEKPR0N family, Manda! I got the chance to chat with her about the production and pick her amazing brain

Do you think that having geeks coming to the theatre is a significant way to develop new audiences and new culture?

Definitely. I love theatre but there there is a bit of a stigma against it. Upon hearing the word “theatre”, people tend to picture Shakespeare, huge budget musicals that they can’t afford, or very artsy, very dramatic pieces in a run down playhouse that only other theatre students would understand. Not that there’s anything wrong with those, but it does tend to alienate a large crowd.

A couple of years ago I wrote a play with D.J. called Headshots and Healing Potions which was a series of short plays about being a video gamer. It was an Alley Play at the Fringe Festival, which meant most of our audience were passers by. The best response I got from that show was “Woah…I didn’t know theatre could be like this”. Geek culture is very relevant and something that people really connect to. We just have to get the word out about it.

How do you see independent theatre contributing to Canada’s national identity and making geeks from our country stand out?

It is interesting because when I think “geek” I don’t necessarily think of a national identity…at least not yet, heh. We tend to be united by our fandoms, not our nationality. Sometimes those fandoms happen to be uniquely Canadian (hello, Captain Canuck) but otherwise there isn’t much to distinguish it.

While our fandoms may remain the same though our outlook and personality is what will make us stand out as both theatre artists and geeks. And Canadians tend to have a pretty unique outlook on life from our American neighbours. There are also even small things we can do: the simple act of setting a play in a place like Toronto (I know there are other Canadian places…but since I live in Toronto I have to believe it’s the only city) will help colour our theatre and art as uniquely our own but doesn’t make it any less marketable. Think of Scott Pilgrim as an example.

When you were writing, how did you imagine the ‘superhero antics’ being staged? With the physical and financial limits of indie theatre, you don’t normally see action-packed theatre events. What was your vision from translating the subject matter from the pages of comic books to a theatre stage?

Actually, it was a bit of the opposite for me! Originally, Sidekicks was a webseries which we just finished up filming for. It had been set in a diner when we first wrote it but due to budgetary and scheduling craziness (ie, I can’t afford a freaking diner) we had to rewrite it and set it in a far simpler location. It still worked, but I was a bit sad that we couldn’t stick with our original script.

With theatre though, even though you are even more hampered by budget and set, there is a lot more freedom to play around with setting. Nobody expects complete realism in theatre and they’re willing to fill in many gaps with their imagination. So that meant that we got to keep the diner set!

That being said though, there is that expectation of action in any superhero story. The key with staging it for me at least was to make it more of a character study. I wanted to know what these characters did in their off hours once the lasers stopped firing and the dust settled. With any low budget production, it’s better to focus on relationships and an engaging story rather than spectacle. Of course…that didn’t stop me from sneaking in a fight scene or two.

Were they any authors, writers or artists you were inspired by in particular when you were working on the plays?

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg have always been inspirations for me. They write these amazing comedies which can also be surprisingly serious at times. There are crazy antics and zombies and cults but at the heart of it all, and what really grounds the entire movie, it’s the story of a friendship. And that’s always been important to me.

Same with Phil Lord and Chris Miller who did Clone High, Lego Movie, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street and…so much stuff. They have now earned the reputation of taking concepts that seem incredibly stupid and somehow making them into good movies. And part of the reason for that is that they have very relateable characters and stories with a lot of heart that ground the zaniness. That was something I always kept in mind when writing Sidekicks.

What was your biggest challenge when writing this play?

With this particular play, the hardest part was probably adapting it. As I said, it was a webseries first which spanned 6 episodes and totalled about 60 pages. We managed to get it down to about 35 pages. That is a lot of cutting and a lot of story and jokes lost in the process.

On the plus side, it allowed us to really pare the story down to its core elements and get rid of a lot of the repetitive and extraneous dialogue. On the minus side….I do really miss some of the jokes and character beats. Errol did most of the cutting. I was far too attached to my babies to kill them. The other tough part was of course getting the courage to finish it :D.

Would you want to continue being a playwright or do you have other goals for the future?

I definitely would love to continue being a plawright! So far this is my third play overall, but it’s my first play that I’ve written that’s longer than ten minutes (well, second if you count a previous webseries I did with Errol). It’s always a learning experience, but I’m having a lot of fun with it.

What I’d also love to do though is become a writer for video games. We’re already working on one and I’m so pumped to try it out. Script writing in general is really working for me creatively. And there’s so much more geeky territory to mine!

Sidekicks and Secret Identities runs from October 17 – 26 at Fraser Studios. Be sure to let them know you’re coming via the Facebook event! The first show is tonight at 7:30!!