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by Morris Panych
Directed by Trevor Leigh April 26 - May 4, 2019
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Lawrence & Holloman was our entry in the 2019 O-Zone Theatre Festival
What's It About?This comedy finds Lawrence, the happy-go-lucky suit salesman trying to teach Holloman, a suicidal accounting clerk, how to live happily and remain positive. That is, until his own good luck starts to turn.
Lawrencs’e fiancée dumps him, his car is demolished, his dog goes missing, he loses his job, and his apartment is burned to the ground... and that's just the beginning! Is happiness determined by our outlook on life? Or can our destiny be changed by another? Written by Morris Panych, Vancouver’s own two-time Governor General Award-winning writer, this sometimes-dark comedy is a twisted story about a cynical man who gets taken under the wing of an optimist. Lawrence & Holloman is directed by Trevor Leigh, stars Vance Potter and Jim Dinwoody, with appearances by Diane Gludovatz and Lisa Gludovatz. This show will also be SOAP Theatre’s entry in the 2019 Okanagan Theatre Festival. Director's Notes![]() I believe the power of theatre is the glorious demands it puts on our imagination. We suspend our disbelief, and if all goes well, we are taken by the hand into an imaginary world as a collective to be moved to laughter, tears and enlightenment.
That said, in the age that we live in, we are constantly bombarded with stimulation and it’s harder and harder to truly grab an audience’s complete attention. The mobile device comes up so quickly! The theatre goer of old watched a performer tell a story in front of a fire or limelight and was much more easily swept away. So how does theatre remain relevant and stimulating? With that challenge in mind, and in support of the theme of “perspective” in this play, I have embraced the Brechtian ideals of Verfremdungseffekt. Before you Google that…I’ll quote Wikipedia for you: “This involved," Brecht wrote, "stripping the event of its self-evident, familiar, obvious quality and creating a sense of astonishment and curiosity about them." To this end, Brecht employed techniques such as the actor's direct address to the audience, harsh and bright stage lighting, the use of songs to interrupt the action, explanatory placards, the transposition of text to the third person or past tense in rehearsals, and speaking the stage directions out loud.” In our production we see the technicians, the creators of the sounds, the set changes, costume changes, the technical equipment and the actors address the audience. This is not realism. You will see the concrete fundamentals of creation. We know it’s a play. We know they are performers. We know we are in a theatre. We know that is not a real beer in that glass. And yet, we will still go on the journey that Morris Panych created and from a place of greater awareness. Trevor Leigh, Director |
Cast & Characters![]() Vance Potter plays LAWRENCE, the overly-optimistic, self-absorbed suit salesman who is simply blind to or in denial of anything that can go wrong.
![]() Jim Dinwoodie plays HOLLOMAN, the cynical accounting clerk that can only take so much of Lawrence's cheery optimism before taking matters into his own hands.
![]() Lisa GLudovatz plays AN, who precedes D in name only. She is a Jill-of-all-trades, and has a talent with crayons and noise-making devices.
![]() Diane Gludovatz plays D, who has a knack for showing up unexpectedly and making strange, thought-provoking sounds.
Behind the ScenesProducer ---------------------------------- Nathan Linders
Director --------------------------------------- Trevor Leigh Assistant Director ----------------------- Nathan Linders Stage Manager / Sound Operator ------- Jen Jensen Set Construction -------------------- Roger Richardson Props -----------------------------------------Louise Szalay Costumes ---------------------------- Bernice Myllyniemi Lighting Design & Operator --------------- Tom Szalay Sound & Video Design -------------------- Trevor Leigh Video Operator ------------------------------- Clem Jones Original Score ------------------------------- Peter Moller What Others Say"Blackly humorous." - Toronto Star
"Lawrence & Holloman is slick stuff indeed." - Toronto Sun "The dramatic universe of… Morris Panych is an exquisitely well ordered place. Genuinely funny… smart… carefully crafted… and neatly delivered." - Globe and Mail "Lawrence & Holloman can make nihilism seem like a party." - The Sacramento Bee |
The Playwright - Morris Panych

(Adapted from Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia)
Playwright, actor, and director Morris Panych is a man for all seasons in Canadian theatre. He has directed over ninety productions across Canada, and written thirty plays that have been produced throughout Canada, Britain, the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand in a dozen languages.
Panych was born in 1952 in Calgary and grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. He received a diploma in radio and television arts from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and then studied creative writing at the University of British Columbia (BFA, 1977), and theatre at East 15 acting school in London, England. He works primarily in Vancouver, and more recently, Montreal.
Panych wrote and directed one of his strongest plays, Lawrence & Holloman for the Tarragon Theatre in 1998.
Panych claims to have no theories about theatre, only a certain need for liberation: "I sense that to illustrate through theatre a multiplicity of truths, is to allow the audience to begin to reclaim truths of its own. To look at a play and say, 'this a pretense invented out of nothing. These characters are trapped inside problems that don’t even exist,' and yet to remain committed to that reality for a time just for the hell of it, to begin to understand what the power of theatre is. Not to mention life. The power to question. . . . What’s important to me now, as always, is to keep things moving. And that’s it. My entire theory of theatre. To keep changing. Rediscovering. Questioning not only the accepted ideas of theatre, but the reversal of those ideas as well." (Canadian Theatre Review 76 [1993]:58-59).
His plays are characterized by existential themes and "theatre of the absurd" style and sensibility. They typically set their interrogations of the meaning of life in culturally and nationally neutral locales, and they pose broad philosophical questions on human interaction and isolation, on the nature of good and evil, and on the relationship between fantasy and reality. Many are black comedies that oscillate between hope and despair.
Playwright, actor, and director Morris Panych is a man for all seasons in Canadian theatre. He has directed over ninety productions across Canada, and written thirty plays that have been produced throughout Canada, Britain, the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand in a dozen languages.
Panych was born in 1952 in Calgary and grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. He received a diploma in radio and television arts from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and then studied creative writing at the University of British Columbia (BFA, 1977), and theatre at East 15 acting school in London, England. He works primarily in Vancouver, and more recently, Montreal.
Panych wrote and directed one of his strongest plays, Lawrence & Holloman for the Tarragon Theatre in 1998.
Panych claims to have no theories about theatre, only a certain need for liberation: "I sense that to illustrate through theatre a multiplicity of truths, is to allow the audience to begin to reclaim truths of its own. To look at a play and say, 'this a pretense invented out of nothing. These characters are trapped inside problems that don’t even exist,' and yet to remain committed to that reality for a time just for the hell of it, to begin to understand what the power of theatre is. Not to mention life. The power to question. . . . What’s important to me now, as always, is to keep things moving. And that’s it. My entire theory of theatre. To keep changing. Rediscovering. Questioning not only the accepted ideas of theatre, but the reversal of those ideas as well." (Canadian Theatre Review 76 [1993]:58-59).
His plays are characterized by existential themes and "theatre of the absurd" style and sensibility. They typically set their interrogations of the meaning of life in culturally and nationally neutral locales, and they pose broad philosophical questions on human interaction and isolation, on the nature of good and evil, and on the relationship between fantasy and reality. Many are black comedies that oscillate between hope and despair.