Some Reflections On Two Years of Café Madness

The Café with its cabaret style à la carte performances has now become somewhat of an institution with its own peculiar history. The Café is no longer a mere fundraiser for DaPoPo. It has grown into a strangely poetic, undeniably popular monthly event for Halifax. Patrons are no longer surprised – have in fact come to expect – classical Shakespeare recitations, German art songs and dramatic monologues to happen side by side. The Café has found a home in Menz, at least for the present, and has come of age. 

Poverty, the Poor Theatre, has proven to be an agent for artistic discovery. Our financial restrictions have proven liberating, allowing us to connect with the community and our audience in a personal, entirely non-traditional way. The Café is a form of People's Theatre: exposing audiences to work they might not otherwise have known about without unnecessary didacticism; whetting theatrical appetites and thickening the bisque of artistic passion; remaining energetic, humble and generous to the max. The poetry, or craft, of what we do reveals itself within the restrictions of the Café environment. 

We have performed in four different venues: the old pre-eviction Mollyz Diner, Ouro Preto, The Good Food Emporium and Menz Bar. Over 40 performers have worked with us at the Café – including three Stev/phe(n)s and three Ann/ies – as well as four designated accompanists. Pieces have been written especially for the Café by more than one writer, including Andrea Dymond and Steve Cloutier. We've seen staff turn-over at Mollyz/Menz, witnessed crowds protesting Harper's cultural slur against the acting community, and watched US elections finally ousting George W. Bush from the White House. 

Perhaps most strikingly, the work for Café is always training, the product always process in an indisputable sense. As we madly mix and stir the creative juices, we've developed recipes (or at least cooking tips), rehearsal techniques for the Café. Our sock puppets function like masks, freeing and sometimes possessing us as we let a Shakespeare sonnet speak through us, or a Mozart duet sing through us. The art of the intimate performance focuses our attention to detail: light, sound, touch, smell, even taste. Café performers learn a mind-boggling amount of material in diverse styles and flavours, exploding and exposing our habits, while forcing us to push the limits of our skill. 

And where do we go from here? In anticipation of our Potsdam Café at the museum FLUXUS+, we have received dozens of submissions by local writers. We now boast a menu bursting with Canadian content including pieces by Jackie Torrens, Natasha MacLellan, Pam Calabrese Maclean, Colleen Wagner, Josh Macdonald, Jenny Munday, Bev Brett, Michael Melski, Marshall Button, Steve Cloutier, Amanda Jernigan, Steph Berntson, Jim Betts and Allen Cole. We have introduced our Academy DaPoPo members Aaron Andreino, Sophie Fong, Ali Richardson and Holly Winter to the Café format at our old haunt the Good Food Emporium. 

We are welcoming new performers, not least of all our wonderful Berlin bound quartet, and attracting new audience members. We are perfecting our technique, tailoring rehearsals and performances to suit the Café set-up. Looking forward to this July, our third DaPride Café promises to be more integrated with Halifax Pride. Could we sustain (as we did this month) two Cafés each month, find host venues in other Canadian cities, provinces and outside the country, find funding to employ a steady Café cast? These are questions that make me dizzy and giddy, with some trepidation, but most of all make me excited for another year of Café madness.