ReACT Arts Club presents staged readings of new plays: The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy, adapted by Nick Bantock and Camille Mitchell (with role of Griffin read by Bruce Greenwood [Sweet Hereafter]), Jan. 22, Jan. 31, Granville Island Stage, 8 pm by donation.
This new play is based on the three best-selling novels by Nick Bantock -- Griffin and Sabine, Sabine's Notebooks, and The Golden Mean. This unusual trilogy relates through actual letters the "extraordinary correspondence" between Griffin Moss, a quiet London artist and Sabine, a mysterious woman living on a tropical island far, far away, who seems to know him in some clairvoyant way. Their magical relationship is told through letters, postcards and artwork in a story that's part romance and part mystery.
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Arts: Staged reading of Bantock's popular trilogy at Arts ClubVancouver Sun Thursday, January 22, 2004
The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy is on its way to becoming a stage play. Tonight marks the first of only two chances to sit in on a staged reading of this work in progress, as the Arts Club Theatre opens ReACT, its fourth annual series of public readings, with Camille Mitchell reading as Sabine and Bruce Greenwood as Griffin. Mitchell was most recently seen on stage here in Dinner With Friends in 2002, but has been busier in TV (The Chris Isaak Show, Smallville). Greenwood has dozens of film credits, most recently in Hollywood Homicide and The Core. "I had the honour, the privilege and the joy of reading with him," says Mitchell of the author. "This lifts beautifully from the page. The images are so gorgeous, the words so evocative." Mitchell saw the power of Bantock's work when she joined him again more recently at the writers' festival in a reading from the last book of the second trilogy, The Morning Star. "People brought their own copies of the book," Mitchell recalls, "and pulled out the letters as we read them. There is something so wonderfully voyeuristic about pulling out those letters that we're still trying to figure out how to make this magic work [on stage]. We don't want to lose anything." Until The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy is a full-fledged piece of theatre, employing the many design elements that are possible thanks to Bantock's original vision, audiences will have to settle for just a taste of what's to come. Tonight's reading comes from what is only the third draft of the stage play, but ReACT also closes its series with another reading of the play on Jan. 31. Since that comes after further refinement of the script, audiences attending both readings will have an intriguing glimpse at the way a play changes in the process of creation. ReACT continues Friday with a reading of The Dunsmuirs, Rod Langley's suspenseful saga of the indentured Scots miner who went on to found a Vancouver Island coal empire. Dean Paul Gibson directs Duncan Fraser, Lee Van Passen and others. On Saturday evening it's Sherman Snukal's After the Gold Rush, with Rachel Ditor directing Stephen E. Miller, Suzie Payne and others in the story of two couples dealing with life and love across the span of 12 years. ReACT continues on the weekend of Jan. 29-31 with Kendra Fanconi directing her own site-specific comedy Other Freds (be sure to dress for the weather) and Norman Armour directing Hiro Kanagawa's Tiger of Malaya, about the war-crimes trial of Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita. The series ends on Jan. 31 with a return to The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy. pbirnie@png.canwest.com © Copyright 2004 Vancouver Sun http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/story.asp?id=5064E303-965A-4611-ABA0-4804631B2579 |
I'm producing this project. Who knows, it could become a play and I could go back to the stage, but that's a lot of 'coulds' right now.
Calgary Sun 2/16/04
A decade ago we couldn't get enough of the adventures of Griffin and Sabine. Nick Bantock's trilogy of books (Griffin & Sabine, Sabine's Notebook, The Golden Mean) drew droves of readers intrigued by a groundbreaking design that filled each book with the letters, stamps and postcards of an imagined correspondence. Another trilogy sprang from the first, but Bantock is busy these days on a return voyage to the original series.
Mitchell and Bantock started working on a stage adaptation of the first trilogy about a year ago.