An actor or dancer has a lot to remember when he or she struts onto a stage during a performance. An actor does not just have to remember the lines, but the emotional inflection behind the dialogue, as well as the staging. A dancer has to think about proper form and sharing the space beyond just getting the moves right.
Now, imagine that the performer’s role was to move, speak and interact with the other actors – but had to do so while running around a circular space, mostly without stopping, for a full hour.
This is the major challenge behind staging Marathon, an acclaimed Israeli play that arrives at the Theatre Centre in Toronto on Feb. 4 before a short nationwide tour. The Canadian staging will mark Marathon’s English-language and North American premiere.
Choreographer Aharona Israel, also the play’s creator, says the constant physical exertion inherent to the performance is a metaphor for Israeli society. The constant running in a circle reflects a state of urgency, emergency and, ultimately, exhaustion.
“It is also a way to search for authenticity on stage,” Israel tells The CJN, adding that the actors will not fake their exhaustion after running for so long.
Marathon pushes its performers to their physical limits. Due to the rigorous demands of the performance, it took Israel and her actors half a year of rehearsal before they were ready to stage Marathon in 2012. She hired a running coach to teach the actors how to maintain energy during that process.
Marathon’s text and characters, meanwhile, derive from the experiences of the three actors. The current staging and text cover topics such as immigration, bereavement and post-war trauma.
The choreographer also hired a writer, Asa Wolfson, to watch rehearsals and document parts of the conversations between the cast members. Along with help from the performers, Wolfson and Israel collaborated on the initial text.
“In a way, the text was made the way choreography is made… improvising and weaving it together,” Israel says.
The show premiered at Israel’s Acco Festival in 2012. The version of Marathon that will stage in Toronto, from Feb. 4 to 6, will feature one performance each day: the first and last show will be in English, while the middle show will be in Hebrew with English subtitles.
Ilya Domanov and Merav Dagan, two of the original three cast members, are still touring with the show. Gal Shamai, who has completed several half-marathons, was a natural fit to join the small group of performers when one of the original cast members dropped out.
“Originally, I looked for people whose presence was interesting for me or who carried a kind of personal story that I felt like I can relate to,” Israel says. “When I looked for a replacement, I had to find someone who has the running skills already.”
For much of the show, the running doesn’t stop. (The performers sometimes get walking breaks.) Israel estimates that the performers run between eight and ten kilometres during each 60-minute show.
Israel says she has never had to stop a production in the middle due to exhaustion or dehydration. However, some shows have been cancelled in the past.
“It’s not a piece you can perform if you’re not fully fit,” she says.
Marathon is in Toronto as part of the Progress Festival and will be co-presented by the Koffler Centre of the Arts. Following Toronto, Marathon will head to festivals in Peterborough, Ottawa and Vancouver.
The Koffler Centre also offers two multi-day workshops, led by Israel, where she will discuss her process and teach local artists about themes inherent to her work.
The first, Intelligent Body, runs on Feb. 6 and 7, and focuses on combining dance and movement with a text. The second, Seeing Through Movement, is open to all artists and deals more with the human perception of visual space and movement. That workshop runs on Feb. 9 and 10.
