Heretic (News Articles)
Theatre Of Biblical Proportions
By Tim Carlson, The Georgia Straight
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
03 September 2003 (Excerpted)
(ARCHIVE EDITOR'S NOTE --- This is an excerpt from a longer article about plays, with religion as a theme, at the Vancouver Fringe Festival written by Vancouver freelance writer Tim Carlson for the weekly arts publication, The Georgia Straight. Along with the portion concerning Niki and Heretic, we have included a segment about The Heretic - a different show presented by the Vancouver production company r-evolution - as Mr. Carlson has drawn a comparison between the two shows.)
Sex is likely to maintain its position as the Fringe's most popular subject matter, but in this year's Vancouver festival, there is a notable interest in, of all things, religion. It's interesting that this is the case after a summer when religion couldn't stop making news, whether in Baghdad, Ottawa or Alabama. Some of these plays deal with the politics of religion and some with matters of a more personal nature; either way, the view from the Fringe offers illumination in an era of intense religious upheaval.
In The Heretic, fear so consumes Tom - a former Catholic struggling in the deep dark of recovery - that love is quite out of the question. This is war. "Tom creates an alter-ego, Jesus Murphy - kind of a Lenny Bruce-meets-Billy Graham - to battle the word of the Lord, to deconstruct it and therefore deconstruct his fear," actor John Murphy said in an interview at his Vancouver home. As the play progresses, Tom becomes paranoid that someone will kill him (think Salman Rushdie fatwa) because of Jesus Murphy's scathing blasphemies.
"I think that the audience connects with Tom because he is so tortured by his religious upbringing - it's within him at such a deep level - that it's difficult to ever escape it," said Murphy, who collected rave reviews in Winnipeg and Saskatoon. "People relate to that need to exorcise those demons, and so they feel a sense of release."
Niki McCretton Presents 'Heretic' is also a comic look at a Catholic upbringing, but McCretton's point of view is the opposite of Murphy's. The multimedia artist from Somerset, England, imagines a futuristic society where religion is banned. Heretics are banished to the Moon, where they must stay until they fill a tank with tears.
"The show looks at the fine line between faith and fundamentalism," McCretton said in a phone interview from Victoria, where she's performing. Confessing to Catholic faith has always invited prejudice, she added, whether in high school or circus school.
"I trained originally as an aerialist - there was a lot of healing and new-age religion as part of the course and I found it very difficult being part of that. There was a real bigotry against anything Christian-based, but there wasn't bigotry against someone who had a Buddhist belief. They were more evangelical about their beliefs than most Christians, and they annoyed me."
Heretic Provokes Thought
By Cathi Arola, The Chronicle-Journal
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada - 12 July 2003
Entertaining her audience is the secondary motive behind Niki McCretton’s work. "I really want to provoke thought with my work," the solo stage performer said yesterday. "I want people to go away thinking about it."
The native of Somerset, England was speaking an hour before performing her 70-minute show Heretic at Magnus Theatre as part of the Thunder Bay Fringe Festival. "You watch a TV show and you really enjoy it while you watch it, but then the minute it’s finished, you’ve forgotten about it," she said. "I just want people to think things through a bit."
McCretton, 35, earned praise for last year’s Worm-Hole. This year, she delivers two more gems - one for her adult fans and one for the kids. The set for Heretic is strange, but eye appealing. An aquarium full of salt water, a delicate tomato plant and space-age screens invite the imagination to work even before watching the play.
Heretic is set in a future where religion is banned. McCretton plays a religious woman who is banished to the Moon. During her stay, the woman rants, dances and bares her soul. Co-written by McCretton, the play is a mixture of art forms scored with film, dance, music and text.
McCretton came up with the idea for Heretic after observing people speaking openly about their religious beliefs. Someone with a "New Age-y" belief is often considered fashionable while a Christian is not, she said. "I’ve watched Christians try to talk about what they believe in and people go ‘don’t try and convert me,’ but they’re very happy to spill their stuff about Buddhism or whatever."
When an alternative-minded Prince Charles set up an interdenominational church service, McCretton saw a disaster: "I just thought that could never work. Because the whole idea of having a faith means that you have to reject the other things because they don’t fit with what you believe in. There comes a point where you want to say ‘actually, that’s not what I want to believe in.’ We’re not very good at being able to say that, because we don’t want to be seen as a fundamentalist. I think it’s quite a topical piece because it’s looking at (whether) this woman is a fundamentalist nutter, or has she just got strength in her own convictions. There’s a fine line."
Her stage career began when, as an ambitious nine-year-old, she played the Artful Dodger in Oliver. So keen to stay in character, she constantly polished her crooked top hat following what she believed her character would probably do.
Alienation Is Theme Of New Production
The Western Morning News
Somerset, England - 16 October 2002
An unusual production combining dance, music and film opens in Devon this week, before going on to tour the rest of the South West. Heretic is about a woman who is banished to the Moon and must pay penance for her wrong-doing on Earth by filling a huge container with her own tears. The performance looks at excommunication - when people are exiled from their community. The woman in the piece dances, rants, bares her soul and laughs her way through her fall from grace.
Niki McCretton, who created and performs Heretic, said, "this piece is about what excommunication can mean today when sometimes there are no real communities to be excommunicated from. We all say the wrong thing sometimes, or feel that we just don't fit in. This piece is about trying to find your place and deciding when to fit in, and when to say what you really feel. This piece is strongly influenced by my own beliefs and my Catholic upbringing. It traces a woman's battle with the dilemma between her faith and the expectations of non-believers, and of trying to find a way to fit in."
Niki's previous production, Worm-Hole, toured Europe and North America in 2002. It won the Best Physical Theatre Performance Award at the Victoria Fringe Festival in British Columbia, Canada. She also had a successful (Five-Star) run at the 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Heretic, which was directed and co-devised by Guy Dartnell, is supported by a £9,850 award from regional arts-funding body, South West Arts, which covers South West England. Nick Capaldi, Executive Director of South West Arts, said, "Heretic is more than dance. It's a theatre piece which incorporates movement, music, film and narrative. The story of excommunication and sidelining is a fascinating one, and the performance promises to be amusing as well as moving."
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