National Post (National Edition)
As it should, mystery shrouds The Stranger 2.0
DopoLavoro Teatrale’s latest experiment
When you buy a ticket to The Stranger 2.0 (which runs until Sept. 29), you’re instructed to be at a secret location at a certain time, and wait to be approached by a stranger.
When I set up an interview with Daniele Bartolini, artistic director of DopoLavoro Teatrale (or DLT, as he and the rest of the company refer to it), I’m told that he will find me in the lobby of the Columbus Centre in North York shortly after 4 p.m. on Saturday.
At 4:15 p.m., Bartolini rushes over to the bench where I’ve been waiting, apologetic — he’s been running rehearsals for different scenes all over the building. “There are a million things going on here.”
The Stranger 2.0 is DLT’s follow up to The Stranger, an experimental hit at Toronto’s SummerWorks festival five years ago, and the foundational work of DLT’s philosophy of “audience-specific theatre.” The show, which is designed for one audience member at a time and involves following performers to locations all over a specific neighbourhood, has since been produced in Europe and India. “Every time it’s a little different, because the cities are different, and the collaborators, the performers are different,” says Bartolini. “So The Stranger 2.0 is the next step.”
Among the changes this time around, The Stranger 2.0 is intended for an audience of two instead of one — so you can bring a date, but Bartolini wishes you wouldn’t. “It’s better if you do (the show) with someone you don’t know,” he says. “(It explores) how ‘the other’ can lead you in an exploration of yourself.” This seems fair considering the word “stranger” is right there in the title.
I’m not to reveal any details of the plot or action, or even the locations (perhaps I’ve said too much already): Surprise is a key element in DLT’s work. “We think the experience is better if you don’t know what’s going to happen,” says Bartolini. It’s important, he says, that audience members feel a little bit lost throughout the proceedings.
“It relates to my personal experience,” he says. “The Stranger came to me shortly after arriving (in Toronto). I was walking on my own, exploring the streets, no job. And then at a certain point I had this thought that ‘OK, this could be a show.’ The entire city, strangers coming out of everywhere.”
With each iteration of The Stranger, the show changes depending on the artistic collaborators. “The performers bring a lot,” says Bartolini. “Sometimes we rework scenes that we have done in the past, but there is always a sense of authorship of the performer in that moment, because the work is always so flexible and there are different participants every time. It’s the same scene, but recreated for you specifically.”
For The Stranger 2.0, not only is it for two audience members at a time, but there are two simultaneous narrative threads at play — meaning you can see the show twice and have a completely different experience each time. The different versions are billed as “above” and “below.”
“Above is more relaxed, and meditational, like a spiritual experience,” says Bartolini. “Below is a little more rock and roll, and a little more adventurous. But both journeys are highly interactive.”
This production is “2.0” for Bartolini and DLT in other ways as well. “It’s also the next step for us, because originally The Stranger was just done in the street because we didn’t have any money to book locations,” he says. “Let’s say the necessity became the strength.”
DLT is growing. The company is the artist-in-residence for Villa Charities, and has an exciting slate of (some still secret) projects coming up in the next few months, including a local remount of last year’s incredibly ambitious immersive production The Curious Voyage.
Part of the magic of DLT’s work in general, and The Stranger in particular, is that it’s so intimate, it makes each audience member an actor in the piece. Of course, that can make rehearsal a challenge. “The way to rehearse is to get into the mindset that every time it’s going to be something unique and different,” he says. “But there are also lines, it’s not like improv. Every segment of the piece includes the possibility of the reaction of an audience member. So how do you rehearse it? It’s not through repetition, but every time to make it happen, I would say.”
After our chat, Bartolini lets me experience a scene rehearsing in one of the corridors and administrative office of the Columbus Centre. The security guard picks this exact moment to do his rounds in this particular corridor, checking to make sure the office doors are locked — but thanks to Bartolini’s talk of unexpected encounters, it takes a minute to realize that the security guard is not, in fact, part of the show.
“We’re working in here,” says Bartolini, frustrated to have a rehearsal interrupted.
But, really, that’s all part of the process too. Because the entire city becomes a backdrop for the world of The Stranger 2.0. “I think that by subtracting everything, you activate the whole city. You’re part of the piece even if you’re just walking by.”