Archetypes, Urbanites and Bus Rides: How the “Here“ Becomes the “There“ in Bluemouth Inc.’s American Standard

Abstract

The spinning red-and-white pole outside Pat’s Barber Shop on D’Arcy Street in Toronto carries all the promise of a “clean cut“ — flat-top, military cut or shave with a straight-edge razor — fast and cheap. Inside Pat’s shop, there is more talcum powder than oxygen, and the mise en scène, consisting of yellowed walls, worn chairs and a hat rack, appears like a deteriorating illusion nesting among city hospitals, university buildings and trendy restaurants. It is precisely this incongruous setting of small-town coiffeur and modernist architecture that first attracted Bluemouth Inc., an interdisciplinary, site-specific theatre collective based in Toronto and New York City, to mount their March 2005 production, American Standard, in Pat’s Barber Shop. Unfortunately, the shop’s landlord did not share the collective’s enthusiasm for turning a men’s grooming business into a performance site and abruptly denied them the use of the store one week before the production was scheduled to open. “It’s not uncommon for us to lose a space at the last minute,“ says core member and composer, Richard Windeyer (Personal interview). Fortunately, Zero Gravity Circus, an east-end movie theatre turned circus rehearsal hall, was made available to the collective, and spectators were bused from the original D’Arcy Street location to a simulated version of Pat’s Barber Shop that consisted of a lone barber chair, multimedia and some masking tape.