Director’s Note, Jennifer Tarver

In our twenties, many of us create our “first world”.  This is the world in which we define ourselves as adults, and in that moment we think that this is who we will be for the rest of our lives.  Inevitably, that world dies – and unlike the death of an older age we don’t see it happen.  It is only when we look back, searching for the clues of what is wrong, what is different, that we realize it is gone.  This play was inspired by that time and place for a group of singular young artists Andrew Shaver, Graham Cuthbertson, Gemma Jones Smith and Paddy Costello members of the Montreal theatre compay Sidemart Theatrical Grocery. Although I had never seen a Sidemart show, meeting any one of these people clarified the exuberance, ego, talent and passion that the members of this company had and the characters in this play embody. The script of A City was given to me by Andrew Shaver and on my first read I was hooked.  I can see why Greg was intoxicated by these young people and the world they inhabited.  Greg’s language is disarmingly casual and painfully funny and I was captivated by his playful and poignant questioning of what is real.