Village of Idiots

by John Lazarus
directed by Gord Love
Thurs.-Sat., March 2-18, 7:30 p.m.
The Davies Foundation Auditorium
52 Church St., Kingston, ON

Foreground left to right: Garret McCrae, Hayley Hudson, Angie Dorey, Cassel Miles, Renee O'Farrell, Dylan Chenier, Michael Capon. Beth Sirett, Vanessa Delzotto Hammond, Damien Schaefer, Poul Busk. Above: Esme Purdy

“People come in two varieties," explains the Rabbi of Chelm. "Chelmniks, and the less fortunate: the Outsiders. Outsiders console themselves by calling Chelmniks a bunch of idiots.

When one outsider, Yosef, arrives in Chelm, he can see how the village got its reputation. Having "stocked" their river with pickled herring a year ago, the villagers are now ready to harvest their catch. Fires are supposedly put out by blowing a magic trumpet.

Josef remains in Chelm, not least because he has met another outsider, Miriam. But his amusement at the village's unusual way of doing things is soon mixed with concern about an impending attack by the Czar's soldiers. He cannot believe the kind, simple Chelmniks when they say the Cossacks will be no match for their unusual wisdom.

Damien Schaefer, Jarret Hains, Vanessa Delzotto Hammond

Village of Idiots is based on classic Jewish folk tales. Commissioned and first performed by Young People's Theatre in Toronto in 1985, it has had many subsequent productions, including a staged reading at the 92nd Street Y in New York and a production in Italian in Venice. It was adapted by the author into both an award-winning National Film Board short and an award-winning CBC Radio miniseries.

John Lazarus

John Lazarus was born in Montreal in 1947. He attended the acting program of the National Theatre School, shortly after which he moved to Vancouver. He spent 30 years in Vancouver, building a career as a playwright, theatre critic and teacher; he also worked as an actor, screenwriter and advertising copywriter.

In 2000 he moved to Kingston, where he is currently an associate professor in the Drama Department of Queen’s University. His plays have been produced across Canada and the United States, and in England, France, Germany, Italy, Israel and Japan.

His first professionally-produced play, the one-act Babel Rap, was for many years the most frequently produced play written in Canada. With Dreaming and Duelling, he became the first Canadian playwright to be produced by the Shaw Festival.

Links