{"id":16665,"date":"2017-03-01T17:49:26","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T22:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16665"},"modified":"2017-03-01T17:49:45","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T22:49:45","slug":"16665","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/16665\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaking in Tongues explores complex human connections"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jason Silzer is drawn to a good plot and well-drawn characters, but also a good challenge.
\nThat is exactly what he encountered last fall when he cracked open a copy of Andrew Bovell\u2019s play Speaking in Tongues, knowing he would be helming the production as part of Theatre Aurora\u2019s 2016 \u2013 2017 season.
\nDescribed as a psychological drama with \u201cgenuine suspense,\u201d Speaking in Tongues follows a police investigation that leads to an \u201cuncomfortable and unexpected conclusion\u201d about nine parallel lives, interlocked by four infidelities, one missing person, and a mysterious stiletto, illustrated through a fragmented series of confessions and interrogations.
\nThe opening, however, presented director Silzer with an enticing challenge.
\n\u201cThe challenges of this play are what drew me to it,\u201d he says of the production, which opens this Thursday, March 2, at Theatre Aurora. \u201cThe first two scenes are done completely in overlapping dialogue. There are four characters, each having an affair with each other\u2019s spouse, and there is this wonderful exploration on how all affairs are the same affair, not all that different from each other.\u201d
\nThis is realised, he says, almost immediately by having both couples having nearly the same dialogue.
\n\u201cWhen you read it on the page, it is quite intimidating, but it comes along. I think the challenge is one of the things I got excited about. You have these two things and you have to deal with them. Let\u2019s figure out how to do it!\u201d
\nCast assembled, Silzer says they broke down the opening scenes, rehearsing the two halves separately before coming together.
\n\u201cI trusted the writing was strong enough that when both sides came together, it would just run and the actors were comfortable in each of their moments \u2013 and it did,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was one of those wonderful ah-ha! moments. It was a little bit of a leap of faith, but it worked.\u201d
\nFirst becoming involved with Theatre Aurora three years ago, Silzer says he was fresh off a directing workshop at Tarragon when he was approached by Theatre Aurora artistic director Sergio Calderon with the chance to spearhead Speaking in Tongues.
\nWhat draws him to a show is a \u201cgood plot, a good through-line, and if there is depth to the characters,\u201d he says.
\n\u201cI say that with a grain of salt because I also directed Spamalot, and loved it!\u201d he says of the Monty Python musical. \u201cEve there, the characters had a depth and humanity to them and I think that is what draws me. I am not particularly drawn to directing cotton candy shows like farces, I like a little bit of edge.\u201d
\nAnd that is exactly what audiences can find when they take in Speaking in Tongues. It is all about making connections, he says, why we fail at making those connections, and those connections between us that are unspoken and often unseen.
\n\u201cI am hoping the audience leaves intrigued,\u201d he says. \u201cI hope they end up talking about the intricacies of the show and leave with a discussion of how the characters, and therefore we, as an extension, are connected with each other almost in a Six Degrees of Separation kind of way. \u201cIt intrigues me how interconnected the characters are and I had to have a diagram to keep everyone straight \u2013 and I think that is actually reflective of real life.
\n\u201cWe are, ourselves, much more closely connected to each other than how we would normally would want to admit to ourselves on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking In Tongues runs at Theatre Aurora at select dates and times March 2 \u2013 March 11. For more information, visit www.theatreaurora.com or call 905-727-3669.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Silzer is drawn to a good plot and well-drawn characters, but also a good challenge.
\nThat is exactly what he encountered last fall when he cracked open a copy of Andrew…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/2017-03-02-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3D2k4-16665","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-24 15:17:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}