TORONTO, November 8, 2006 --  Theatre @ York’s season opener is the North American premiere of “The Comedy of Vanity” by Nobel laureate Elias Canetti, directed by Ines Buchli in a translation by Gitta Honegger. The production previews November 12 and 13, opens November 14 and runs to November 18 at York University.

 

Originally written in German in1934 but not produced until 1965, Canetti’s mordant satire lays bare the social pathology inherent in the mindless delusion of absolute rightness.

 

Set in a nameless European city, The Comedy of Vanity begins with the promulgation of a law banning all the means of narcissistic self-regard. Initially welcomed by the populace with an orgiastic bonfire of mirrors and photographs, the ban also entails the extinction of individual self-recognition and critical rationality, and soon becomes intolerable. Eventually, people find ways to evade or profit from the repression they originally embraced.

 

Canetti was born in 1905 in Bulgaria to a Sephardic-Jewish family and was educated in Austria, but spent much of his adult life in London and later in Zurich before his death in 1994. During the 1930s he became acquainted in Berlin with some of the leading radical German artists of the day, including Bertolt Brecht, Isaak Babel and George Grosz, and began writing essays, plays and novels. In 1960 he published Masse und Macht (“Crowds and Power”), an imaginative study of mass movements, death and disordered society that had been germinating ever since his experience of mob action in Germany and Austria in the 1920s and ‘30s. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1981.

 

Seventy years after it was penned, The Comedy of Vanity retains its resonance for contemporary audiences.

 

“We live in a world where examples of fascism are smouldering all around us,” said Buchli. “What happens when people live in society that is riddled with fear and without reflection?”

 

Buchli has been working professionally in theatre for over 25 years as a director and dramaturge and in collective creations. Her directing credits include the Shaw Festival, Theatre Passe Muraille and Necessary Angel Theatre Company, where she served as associate artistic director. She also writes and directs for the screen. Her award-winning feature film Foxy Lady, Wild Cherry premiered to critical acclaim at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival and continues to be broadcast. A second feature film, Skin to Skin, is currently in development. An alumna of York University’s Graduate Program in Theatre and of the Canadian Film Centre, she teaches acting and directing in the Department of Theatre at York.

 

Theatre @ York’s production of The Comedy of Vanity showcases the talents of students in all areas and levels of York’s theatre program. The cast is drawn from the fourth-year acting program, and the production is designed and constructed by undergraduate students. Set design is by Michael Cuttini, lighting by Michael Steenvoorden, costumes by James Bolton and sound design by Christina Pascoa.

 

The Comedy of Vanity previews Sun. Nov. 12 & Mon. Nov. 13, opens Tues. Nov. 14 and runs through Sat. Nov. 18 in the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre, located in the Centre for Film and Centre at York University’s Keele campus. Showtime is 7:30 pm nightly, with matinees on Wed. Nov. 15 & Fri. Nov. 17 at 1:00 pm. General admission is $15, $10 for students & seniors, and group rate $5. The Sunday preview is PWYC, Monday preview $5. Box Office and more information at 416.736.5888 or www.yorku.ca/finearts/theatre@york

 

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Media contact:

Brigitte Kleer, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University

416.736.2100 ext. 77143   |   bkleer@yorku.ca