LET THE WILD RUMPUS START!

MTYP’s Mainstage opens its new season with an interactive adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s book Where the Wild Things Are by Presentation House Theatre (Vancouver, BC), originally adapted to the stage by TAG Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland.

Where the Wild Things Are has a different seating configuration than a usual theatre show. The seating will be general admission, and our theatre will only have half capacity to make room for mats near the stage. Audiences can decide whether they’d like to sit back and enjoy from their seat, or come down to a mat to get right up close to the action!

After seeing the TAG Theatre version over 20 years ago, director Kim Selody was immediately interested in creating an adaptation for Presentation House Theatre in Vancouver BC. Here’s what he had to say about the creation of the show:

“I first came across this project in 2000 in Scotland, where I met the Managing Director of TAG Theatre,” said Kim Selody, Presentation House Artistic Director. “TAG was doing a very small, guided play experience for twenty children at a time, based on Maurice Sendak’s popular book, Where the Wild Things Are. Carol Heleas created the concept, and TAG was willing to share it with me.

“I approached Mr. Sendak and asked if we could do a similar thing in Canada, but adapt the experience into a full play for about 120 children and adults. He was very generous and gave us permission to do an adaptation of the TAG version.”

“Since then, our production has toured extensively across Canada, to Japan twice, and throughout the US. I am delighted to bring Where the Wild Things Are back again to Presentation House Theatre. Maurice Sendak clearly understood what children need. He once said, ‘Children are honest, brave, and want to know the truth. They are perhaps the only sane audience left.” This production continues to bring joy to audiences and is always an invigorating challenge for the performers. I am in awe of what they achieve every time they play the show.'”

Upon first reading the original script, MTYP’s artistic director Pablo Felices-Luna recalls not being able to imagine how a play could exist in such a small footprint. The TAG Theatre script came in at a modest seven or eight pages and was a simple roadmap that used this Maurice Sendak story to play with the audience. The play and the playing both lie in the space between the lines of this short script. After seeing the magic that audiences and performers were able create together, the show began to make sense:

“I have worked on a number of shows since then where the writer gives you a roadmap and trusts you (and the audience) to go on the adventure together. I get it now. I also look back at that moment when I could not make sense of Where the Wild Things Are with great fondness for my younger self and for the artists who taught me that sometimes, that’s all you need.”

Moving around, making noise, and interacting with the performers is usually not allowed at a theatre show, but Where the Wild Things Are invites it. Sometimes, we just need to be wild. As children, our parents and caregivers model proper behaviour, constantly redirect us, and have little tolerance for wildness in their already stressful day to day lives.  As adults, we have even less opportunities to be Wild Things. We judge ourselves for being too emotional, feel embarrassed when we think we’ve overreacted, and we fear the rejection that might come if we ever really went wild.

Maurice Sendak created a world where Max could be as wild as he needed to be, a place where he could be angry, scream, stomp, run, and break all the rules. When the adventure is over and Max is ready to go back home, dinner will still be waiting for him no matter what. The joy of making this story real together is what keeps us coming back to this production.

Where the Wild Things Are sails onto the MTYP Mainstage from October 18th-November 3rd. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling the Box Office at 204-942-8898.

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