EDMONTON -- When your show begins with a man standing stark naked in the middle of the stage advising that the upcoming performance contains nudity, it's probably fair to ask that the audience check its hang-ups at the door.
Anyone even casually familiar with the works of Canadian poet-songwriter-icon Leonard Cohen would expect no less than the mix of the spiritual, the secular and the sexual that Calgary's One Yellow Rabbit Theatre promises with Doing Leonard Cohen, opening tonight at the Citadel's Rice Theatre.
"It's provocative as hell," says One Yellow Rabbit's Denise Clarke, the show's choreographer and one of four performers along with Michael Green, Andy Curtis and Rita Bozi. "Very, very silly-dirty. We're shameless. You could do this show and die a thousand deaths."
Doing Leonard Cohen is staged in two parts, the first an interpretation of some of Cohen's poems set to stage movements designed by Clarke, while the second is an adaptation of his 1966 free-form novel, Beautiful Losers.
It's been a popular production in One Yellow Rabbit's magic hat for five years, making its first visit to our fair burg thanks to Citadel artistic director Bob Baker, who no one will ever accuse of making timid choices - just like no one will accuse One Yellow Rabbit Theatre of having timid players.
"We prefer to be beautiful losers, and we just dive right in," said Clarke. "I'm sure for some people, it's exactly what would turn them off. They'd sit there and think, 'OK, these people are just taking this too far. Just stop it right now.' But you know, we really do have a lot of fun with each other, and we're old, very close colleagues and we've done all manner of wacky things together. So we don't have any shame."
It's hard to think of trickier source material to adapt to the stage than Cohen's literary works, but when One Yellow Rabbit's Michael Green (the naked man at the performance's outset) initially seized upon the idea to adapt Beautiful Losers, they wouldn't let go until something came of it, said director Blake Brooker.
"Cohen's text forms the spine or the skeleton of it, and it's a celebration of his work in a way," said Brooker, who also scripted the adaptation of Beautiful Losers.
Cohen, said Brooker, "is in fact a very funny guy and very interested in being funny, you know, very humorous, very ironic, very light, kind of a fun guy."
The production sought and received Cohen's blessing, and, while he's never seen the show himself (the troupe is hoping he might be in Montreal when they next take the show there), he sent them a bouquet of yellow roses which they dried, pressed and keep as a souvenir.
And it's the essence of the man's works and his spirit, if that doesn't sound too New-Agey, that One Yellow Rabbit Theatre has tried to capture with Doing Leonard Cohen.
"Sometimes you think about having dinner with a famous person, like, say, Trudeau," said Brooker by way of example. "You think you'd be sitting on your hands the whole night, afraid to open your mouth for what his sharp tongue might bring out. But with Leonard Cohen you get a sense of gentleness, humour, pleasure. And he likes to drink brandy, so I'm sure you'd have a blast."
Doing Leonard Cohen runs until March 17 at the Citadel's Rice Theatre. For ticket information, call 425-1820.
