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Q&A | This Must Be The Place: The CN Tower Show

Architect Theatre Collective’s Charlotte Corbeil Coleman on constructing a landmark Toronto play

By Lauren Gillett • October 3, 2012

(L to R): Greg Gale, Charlotte Corbeil Coleman, Jonathan Seinen, Georgina Beaty, and Thomas Olajide. Photo by Amanda Lynne.

This Must Be the Place: The CN Tower Show uses music, theatre, maps and media to tell the unique story of Toronto. The play opens this week as part of Theatre Passe Muraille’s Beyond Walls season. Here, we chat with Architect Theatre Collective’s Charlotte Corbeil Coleman about discovering Canada’s largest city.

Theatromania: Tell us about The CN Tower Show, what inspired this project?

CCC: In 2009 Architect Theatre did a show about Fort McMurray called Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show. We lived there for three weeks and created a show based on interviews we conducted and the situations we found ourselves in. In 2010 we presented this show with Theatre Passe Muraille and we were asked to be a part of Theatre Beyond Walls. We wanted to take the model we had used for the Fort Mac Show and apply it to Toronto.

Our original idea was to look at the building of the CN tower and that time that surrounded it, the promises of that Toronto and which ones have come through and which ones haven’t. But what has happened in the process of making this play is we’ve realized Toronto is made up of ideas but much more so of people. So the show is now much more about the people we met and the people that make up the audience on each night.

Theatromania: How many people were interviewed for the show?

CCC: Around 75 to 90. Hard to say as some interviews were more formal and others impromptu. Interactions on the subway were just as important as more formal interviews with politicians and city planners.

Theatromania: Almost everyone in the Architect Theatre Collective is relatively new to the city. What about yourself?

CCC: Actually, I am the only member of the collective that was born in Toronto and grew up here. It has been fascinating to see my city in a new light through the eyes of people who have just arrived. Through making this play my perception on a lot of things to do with my city has changed. It’s like your cousin coming in from out of town, you end up showing Toronto off to them and experiencing your city anew.

Theatromania: What is the best thing about this city? The worst?

CCC: The best for me would be the diversity of the city and its neighbourhoods. The worst, I’d have to say the subway. That so much of the city is not included. I think it is a poorly planned system that alienates a lot of the residents of Toronto.

Theatromania: What do you hope audiences take away from this work?

CCC: I hope they feel included in the work, and that it engages the way they think about Toronto and allows them to ponder for themselves, what they think makes up a good city and what they consider home to be.

This Must Be The Place: The CN Tower Show runs from October 4 to 27 in the Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace. Visit passemuraille.on.ca for more information and to buy tickets.