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The Camden Fringe Inteviews
Kent Stetson on One and The Other
Joining the international element heading to Camden Fringe this year is Kent Stetson, whose show One and The Other: A Play for Two Young Canadian Men will be performing at Etectera Theatre from 29 July until 2 August.
We caught up with Kent to hear more about the play, and what brings “a 76-year-old fringe festival virgin” to our little part of North London.
“More and more young men are cut adrift, lost in a world that describes their very nature as toxic. The basic state of being a human male, they are told repeatedly, is poisonous. Testosterone is the juice of all evil. This is harsh, cruel, unnecessary, vengeful nonsense. Young men are still as beautiful and strong and potent and kind and weak and deadly and wonderful as they’ve always been.” EKS, June 2024.”
My name is Kent Stetson. I’m a Member of The Order of Canada. I hold Canada’s highest literary distinction, The Governor General’s Literary Award, for Drama.
I’m also an old dog learning new tricks: I’m a 76-year-old fringe festival virgin.
Until now.
Pop!
I’m co-producer, with our American friends and colleagues from Kansas City, MO, Bob Paisley and John Story, of a new Canadian play for two young men, One and The Other. I’m so very grateful to Bob and his visionary Central Standard Theatre for… “Bringing the World to Kansas City, taking Kansas City to the world”.
What we love about our American neighbours to the south, with our long undefended border and hundred and fifty year peace is this: Speak the truth as you see it,” they say, “in a loud, clear voice.” Sometimes, depending on the speaker, the voice is too loud and the ‘truth’ too jarring for our smug, delicate Canadian ears. The America we love we love deeply as one loves family. It takes courage to support and promote this provocative work of contemporary dramatic fiction. Thanks America. We hope Britain feels its heat too.
I share co-producer duties here in Montreal with a brilliant young colleague Rahul Gandhi, with whom I’m delighted to also share directing credit for the show. Rahul’s clear-eyed vision has raised the stakes and influenced the work with a strong sense of what it is to be hard-working, good hearted young men in this too-often misandrist contemporary world. Rahul’s ability to stare directly into the face of cruelty and render on stage with equal conviction the consequences of love and terror belie his age. He has elevated the work.
From the beginning, mentorship has been crucial to the development of this fringe theatre production, what I call the Showcase Version of the full length play of the same title. (A draft of the full length 100 minute version of the show is available upon request to serious potential producers)
Director/Associate producer Rahul Gandhi, and actors Fadi Malo and Aidan Cottreau are very gifted young men just commencing promising careers. They are dedicated, hard-working young professionals. You’ll see wonderful work from all three, now and here, and in the future. Their vision and energy, their comprehension of the power of theatre and the brutal delicacy with which it must be created is absolutely inspiring.
Co-mentors, CST’s producer/presenter extraordinaire Bob Paisley, Montreal based dramaturg and acting coach Brian Dooley, also a renowned Canadian actor/producer/director, and I, are all seasoned, accomplished professionals. It has been, and continues to be, a great joy to pass our collective wisdom on to these three brilliant young men while getting ‘fired up’ by a whole new generation of theatre artists.
I’m also grateful to friend and colleague Halifax Nova Scotia actor, playwright and producer Wanda Graham for her insightful text edit of a very long early version of the text.
One and the Other has been brewing for at least a decade. During the Afghan war two Canadians were detained and tortured by the American military. One man was ‘rendered’ in Syria at America’s behest. The second was a fifteen year old boy when he was captured by the Americans in a US/Afghan fire fight. Severely wounded and left for dead he somehow survived. He was Illegally detained for a decade without charge at the military detention centre in Guantanamo, Cuba. He was repeatedly, severely brutalized and tortured. Canada was powerless to bring him home, despite the combined, exhaustive efforts of then Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and American Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton.
Some years later, soon after the Muslim Arab Canadian boy had grown to manhood in horrendous circumstances and was finally repatriated, a second young man of a similar age walked into the Grand Mosque of a major Canadian city and murdered six Muslim men at prayer.
What got me going, aside from the obvious national betrayal by Canada of a Canadian citizen, a boy, and the unforgivable brutality of the mass murderer, was the contrast in their characters. The Arab Canadian boy, who suffered excruciating isolation and torture emerged wise beyond his years, with his soul intact, somehow expanded and enhanced. The twenty four year old mass murderer said, ‘I wish I’d killed more.”
The tension between the sheer goodness of one young man and the unfathomable madness of the other pulled me to my desk at home here in Montreal. Ten years later, voila! The world premiere, at Bedford and Camden in 2024, of the sixty minute showcase version of One and The Other, a Play for Two Young Canadian Men, is upon us.
We’re playing at Etcetera Theatre with our fellow trans-Atlantic traveller, our American sister show, John Clancy’s remarkable new work Just Like Hollywood. Please come bend your elbow, and our ears, with your thoughts on both shows. And don’t forget to ask me about the full length version of One and The Other. Rahul, Aidan and Fadi and I get to work polishing and producing the full length play in Montreal this fall! Spread the word. And if you’re fortunate enough to find yourself in La Belle Ville, look us up. We’d love to hear from you.
Thanks to Kent for our trans-Atlantic chat. You can catch One and The Other when it plays at Etcetera Theatre 29 July – 2 August. Further information and tickets available here.
