Laura Condlln is one of the six actors starring in Tarragon Theatre’s Sextet, a comedy-drama about six sexually entangled musicians during an ill-fated winter tour.
Written and directed by Morris Panych, the play which premieres on Nov. 12 “is every possible incarnation of that word, sextet. We are a chamber ensemble – two cellists, two violas and two violin players,” says the Toronto-born award-winning actor.
On a winter tour, the troupe gets stuck in a “crappy motel in a small town.
“We are trapped not only by our own complicated lives, temperaments and desires for each other, but also by Mother Nature herself because there is a blizzard coming. As the play unfolds you meet us and all our layered complexities and quirks as we try to navigate through each other and how we are going to survive the next 48 hours,” Conlln says.
“I think if you connect the dots between all of us, everybody wants to be a companion with somebody else, but not the actual person who wants them. Desire rules in that we constantly as humans want what we can’t have and that is really explored in this play through human relationships and physical and emotional desire.”
Condlln plays Sylvia, a cellist. “There are lots of musical metaphors woven through the play. Morris is really good at that, he plays his language in such a brilliant way. Often characters will say one thing, but it has many different meanings, he feels music can be a way of releasing.”
Sylvia is absolutely in love with her best friend and fellow cellist, Harry, played by Damien Atkins, who is gay. She ponders finding another man in the ensemble to satisfy her physically, while she secretly has emotional fulfillment with Harry.
Although Condlln plays the violin and viola, she doesn’t play the cello. The instrument is present on the stage, though she doesn’t have to play it. Having spent years alongside cellists in orchestras she’s played with, and meeting with a professional cello player for this performance, she feels confident that she can authentically replicate the actions of a cellist.
“Sylvia is very hungry for physical contact,” she explains. “I think it is very interesting that she is a cello player because the cello is so large and it has a definite physical representation that you hold between your legs and you can caress it. It does feel like there is a presence with you.”
Condlln hopes audiences will have a good time and laugh, yet feel that their stories are represented and relate to the characters. Acting alongside Condlln and Atkins, are Matthew Edison, Rebecca Northan, Bruce Dow and Jordan Pettle.
“Not only is Morris very funny in his writing, but I think this collection of actors are a very witty and intelligent bunch,” Conlln says. “Our world can be a very dark place and I think it is wonderful to spend two hours inside a comedy and invest in those characters’ lives.”
Conlln divides her home life between Stratford, Toronto and Montreal with partner, Jane Gooderham, a professional voice coach and the head of voice at The National Theatre School in Montreal, and their dog, George.
Condlln began acting as a child and later joined the amateur theatre company The York Minstrels.
“When I was growing up in Toronto, I was part of the Secular Jewish Association, my family were secular, humanistic Jews. I sang in the choir and I accompanied the cantor for Kol Nidre on the viola. I feel traditional Jewish folk songs are so evocative. My favourite part of our culture is that musical expression of the ups and downs of our tribe. I feel a connection to that folklore, I meet my religion through that.”
Condlln received a Dora nomination for Canadian Stage’s This. She also spent 11 seasons at the prestigious Stratford Festival where she picked up two awards