BWW Interviews: Philip Riccio Talks Speaking in Tongues

Speaking in Tongues is the latest offering from Toronto's Company Theatre, in association with The Canadian Stage Company. The show tells the story of nine parallel lives which are interlocked by lust, infidelity and a mysterious stilletto. 

Company Theatre was founded by Allan Hawco and Philip Riccio in 2004 as an actor's company, a place where our country's top talent could go and be part of daring and brave works that would challenge them and help them further develop their craft.  The company has put on many award winning productions since it's inception, including last year's The Test.

Speaking in Tongues is directed by Company Theatre co-founded Philip Riccio, who won a Toronto Theatre Critic's Award for his performance in The Test.  He sat down to speak with BWW about the unique challenges associated with directing a production such as Speaking in Tongues, about the show's mature subject matter and about the vision that he and Allan have for Company Theatre:

Congratulations on the opening of Speaking in Tongues! Could you give us a brief overview about what the show is about?

Speaking in Tongues was written in the nineties by Andrew Bovell who is an Australian playwright and the play is about nine characters who's lives interconnect in all sorts of ways.  Through these nine characters we explore the ideas of marriages, relationships and infidelity, as well as the consequences of our choices to both ourselves and to the people around us.  Some of the choices are major ones such as betrayin one's spouse but many are smaller choices as well.  The play explores the potentially tragic consequenes our decisions can have on the people we love most.  It also explores the issue of intimacy and how sometimes it can be easier to be intimate with strangers, not only in a sexual sense but also in terms of expressing ourselves.  Sometimes it can be easier to reach out and create bonds with strangers as opposed to the people who we're supposed to be the most intimate with.

The show is structured in three very distinct parts, and each part gives us a piece of this larger puzzle.  It isn't told in a linear function, instead Andrew has created this large arc and the audience has to put the pieces together.

You are a co-founder of Company Theatre with Allan Hawco.  How do the two of you go about choosing what you program each year?

We do most of the choosing together, but for the last few years with Allan being so busy on the Republic of Doyle I've been doing a lot of the grunt work for the programming.  Once I have a short list assembled I send it to him and he helps with the decision.  We're partnered with Canadian Stage as well so they have veto rights and help us decide what we produce also. 

Often when choosing a play we already have attached one or two actors from our ensemble before we make any final decisions, so we're keeping that in mind and thinking about how a person would fit with a particular show. In the case of Speaking in Tongues we were already thinking of Jonathan Goad and it seemed like a perfect fit for him.  We also look for something that gets under your skin and can haunt you for a long time after readin or seeing it.  This show hits on a lot of truths and dramatizes what it is to connect with other human beings.  It's universally resonant.

What would you say is the main focus of Company Theatre's productions? 

Our main focus is certainly on performance.  When we started this company we were both freelance actors who had been working for six or seven years for various companies within Canada and we felt like there wasn't the type of focus in rehearsal on the process and the art of performance.  Every show we do we try and build off that process that we've been working with.  It puts the actor at the centre and we try and examine what it is to be a live performance and look at how the actors can shape that performance for an audience.

That said, we don't necessarily stage our shows in the traditional fashion so our actors aren't asked to repeat choices every night.  This way you're really seeing the performance unfold in front of you every night.  We want to be a company that is around for actors to challenge themselves and that's where most of our success has come from - that belief has allowed us to attract some of the best actors in Canada and any of our success is based on their work.

Kelly Cameron's love affair with the theatre began when she was just five years old, on an outing to see the Original Canadian Cast of Les Miserables at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. She instantly fell in love, and since then has been lucky enough to be involved in various theatre activities and productions, including a regional production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and a local production of Where the Sidewalk Ends. She has also received training from various teachers throughout Southwestern Ontario in both piano and voice, and competed in vocal competitions for which she received a few awards. Her writing career started almost by accident, when she had the opportunity to become a ghostwriter for up and coming businesses. She continues to do this, writing the content for all sorts of companies who are starting websites and looking to find their voice. Her passion and love for theatre led to her becoming involved with BroadwayWorld where she is thrilled to be writing for the Toronto contingent of the rapidly growing website. When she isn't at the theatre, you can generally find her firmly planted in front of her trusty Blackberry - tweeting, Facebooking or partaking in other such social media activities to ensure that those who want to know are kept apprised of everything that Toronto theatre has to offer. Other interests include movies, art, music, shopping, fashion and martial arts with the occasional foray into the world of finance. Follow Kelly on Twitter at @broadwaybabyto Creep her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Kelly-Cameron/500187141

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