Allister MacDonald and Jacob MacInnis. Photo by: Matt Hertendy
Cape Bretoner Allister MacDonald is well known to Halifax audiences for playing Frank N’ Furter in Neptune Theatre’s hit production of The Rocky Horror Show in 2022. They are currently based in Toronto where they are playing Pentheus in the brand new rock opera, Dion, adapted from Euripides’ The Bacchae (405 BC), with a book by Prince Edward Island’s Steven Mayoff, and music by Ted Dykstra. The play is produced by The Coal Mine Theatre, a company that Dykstra co-founded with Diana Bentley in 2015, and it plays at their intimate theatre space in Toronto until March 3, 2024. MacDonald very kindly chatted with me via zoom about this really exciting and special world-premiere.
MacDonald grew up in Creignish and Mabou, the former is the hometown of Ashley and Lisa MacIsaac, the latter is the hometown of The Rankin Family. As MacDonald says, “I think there’s something intrinsically theatrical and musical about the area.” They cite Bryden MacDonald and Daniel MacIvor as incredible Cape Breton playwrights saying, “I think storytelling is such an innate part of Cape Breton’s culture in a very specific way.” MacDonald grew up playing volleyball, and had a obsession with the Broadway musical Rent, but, unfortunately, at that time seeing or doing theatre wasn’t as accessible on the Island as it is today. They remember seeing Les Miserables in Antigonish, coincidentally enough, directed by Neptune’s current Artistic Director, Jeremy Webb. “I thought they were all singing in French,” they laugh, “I didn’t know what was going on!” When MacDonald was a bit older, in High School in Antigonish playing volleyball, they found out that Music of the Night was doing Rent, and they auditioned and played Angel at 18 years old with Jenn Priddle. “I was like, ‘Oh. I think I’m supposed to do this.’” MacDonald cancelled their university plans, and eventually auditioned for Neptune Theatre’s Pre-Professional Training Program. They did Rent again, this time with Geordie Brown’s DGM Music Inc. in Halifax, and then they got into theatre school at the school now known as Toronto Metropolitan University.
In Dion: A Rock Opera they are working with director Peter Hinton-Davis, who recently directed Walter Borden in The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time, also at Neptune Theatre. The Bacchae is based on the Ancient Greek myth of Dionysos, and in Dion MacDonald plays Pentheus, King of Thebes, who is Dionysos’ cousin. “Dionysos comes back to Thebes to seek revenge on me for slandering his mother and spreading lies that they’re not half-God. I say that it’s all a lie, and chaos ensues,” MacDonald laughs. Of Hinton-Davis MacDonald says, “I feel like myths are hard, and this one is a tragedy too, so there’s some bizarre elements, and sometimes it relies on the audience being familiar with the myth, so it’s about staying true to the myth, but also making it accessible. I feel like Peter has such a great balance of keeping something very real, but also heightened at the same time. He is a master of his craft, and he works VERY hard.”
MacDonald says that Pentheus is very much inspired by the idea of dictators (both past and present), as he is the absolute ruler of Thebes. “It’s a great role. It’s really different for me,” says MacDonald, who also is known for having played The Mad Hatter at Neptune, “It’s very intense, there’s a lot of rage, a lot of repression, but it’s a lot of fun.” Jacob MacInnis plays Dionysos, which MacDonald notes is special, as MacInnis was originally cast to play Frank in Rocky Horror at Neptune. “They’re brilliant in the show and brilliant to work with,” MacDonald says, “We’ve had this weird tether to each other since Rocky Horror. So it’s been amazing getting to work with them. We love each other so much.” As MacDonald explains, “The thing about Dionysos is they are the god of wine, and theatre, and they’re tethered to sexuality. In terms of new language and terminology, they are non-binary. They represent aspects of both the feminine and the masculine spirit in one.” Mayoff and Dykstra’s adaptation of this story is very contemporary so, as MacDonald says, “I think just the idea that a non-binary being walks into the town and starts liberating the minds of people, and the fact that that is seen as a threat and a danger, instead of being accepted wholly, is really applicable to the times we live in. My character seeks to attack, and seeks to diminish, and abolish [them] because “my people’ are being “taken” from me, and joining the Cult of Dionysos… I think it’s really appropriate storytelling for these times.” Of MacInnis MacDonald says, “The idea that we can see someone like Jacob MacInnis, who is non-binary, own a space and get to play, yes a god, but someone who is already so present within Jacob, because of just their existence, it’s effortless- magnetic, and really special and mysterious. It’s exciting to see, and the fact that the main Queer character is not the tragic figure, they’re in fact, the hero, and they’re also complicated, and gruesome- that’s is really exciting to see as a Queer person myself. I’m playing this dictator who might have something else going on deep inside that they are trying to run from- that makes them act out- that is also a really interesting thing to explore. I think it’s probably a reality for a lot of the people who are violent toward the Queer community: they don’t want to see what’s there in themselves, so they decide to act out irrationally on the people who can be free. I think it’s VERY relevant.”
MacDonald also says that Dion raises questions about perfection, and, in general, the way that we tend to be conditioned to see the world in binaries, “Even the person who we might think is the hero, no one is perfect. Everyone’s minds and hearts can be changed, but no one is perfect. I think that’s a very interesting approach to the story… I think it’s really appropriate and smart storytelling.”
The music has been a big challenge for MacDonald, who considers themselves foremost to be an actor, “It’s been such a challenge,” they say, “in a great way. It’s important that artists get a chance to expand in different ways. [The show] is entirely sung through- entirely– the scenes are recitatives- so they are sung- and it’s seventy minutes and it’s grand and it’s hard, and it’s sexy, and it’s unlike anything I have ever really tackled before. It’s a different kind of discipline.” MacDonald says that Dykstra has drawn from all sorts of different musical genres in creating the show from gospel to musical theatre, to pop, and r&b. “Ted is very smart, and he’s an incredible musician, and he’s made it really accessible… I know everyone says this, but I really mean it, there’s something, especially musically, for everybody. It really spans the genres, but also ties in really nicely together because each character and each actor is so different.”
MacDonald also mentions that one of the more “badass” things that Ted Dykstra has done in his career is playing Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Crows Theatre (in Toronto) back in 2001. “I feel like specifically for some of the songs I sing there’s a lot of inspiration from- Ted has done so much- it feels like an amalgamation of a few things that he’s done, but [Hedwig] is specifically my favourite.”
Another challenge for MacDonald is the very intimate playing space at The Coal Mine Theatre. The company lost their initial theatre space in a fire in 2022, and the community rallied around the company, and they have since moved to a new location in the same East End neighbourhood. “It’s really fucking nice,” says MacDonald, then apologizing for their language, “and really intimate. VERY intimate… specifically this production we are doing it in the corridor, the alleyway, so we have this big red runway and the audience are on either side of us and they are RIGHT THERE. It is a small space, but there’s a lot of scope, and it takes a lot of creativity and talented artists to imagine what is possible in the space, and I think they rise to the challenge every time. I think the immediacy of having an audience right there is really what makes their work have so much impact. This is my second show in a couple of months or less in the configuration of the alleyway. I did Angels in America at Buddies, and that was in a similar configuration, so now I feel like the Queen of the Corridor.” They laugh. MacDonald feels like Hinton-Davis has tackled the staging in a very beautiful, difficult way. “I think if it’s not really challenging our own abilities and our own ideas, then I don’t think it’s worth it.”
For all their recent accomplishments in Toronto, they’re also nominated in the Outstanding Performance (Leading) category from the MyEntWorld Critic’s Pick Awards for Angels in America, MacDonald credits Halifax as the place that first set them up for success. “How I really got my start, professionally, was through Halifax, through Kazan and Kathryn MacLellan and her production of The Weekend Healer (by Bryden MacDonald), and Jeremy seeing me in that production and giving me so many opportunities through Neptune, which has enabled me to get attention, I guess, nationally. That has allowed me to find some really cool opportunities here [in Toronto]. I am really, really grateful to Halifax and the audiences in Halifax, and to Jeremy, and to Neptune, and all of you. I can’t wait to be back in Halifax.” MacDonald is very close with MacLellan, they even live with her every time they work in Halifax. They consider Wayne Burns and Breton Lalama to be siblings, and coincidentally workshopped Lalama’s play The Last Show on Earth, which is onstage now at the Scotiabank Studio at Neptune. MacDonald originally played the role that Wayne Burns plays in the show. “I love working with Queer people on Queer shows,” they say referencing both that experience and working on Dion; “they’re so uncompetitive.”
Dion: A Rock Opera plays at the Coal Mine Theatre (2076 Danforth Avenue, Toronto) until March 3rd, 2023. Shows run Tuesdays to Saturday at 7:30pm, and Sundays at 2:00pm. General Admission Tickets range in price from $66.00-$72.00. There are also Rush Tickets, Youth Tickets, and Arts Worker Tickets. For tickets please visit this website or visit in person at 2076 Danforth Avenue.
SENSORY WARNINGS – STROBE AND HAZE. Please note, this production uses strobe lights and theatrical haze. Other sensory warnings include stage blood and loud noises (popping balloons).
A Note on Accessibility from the Coal Mine website: “The theatre and lobby are located in a sub-basement — accessing it requires descending a flight of twelve stairs. We understand that this barrier may cause concern for our patrons with limited mobility, and apologize for the current lack of accessibility. It will be a priority to make our space fully accessible in the future, but alas because of the way the building is designed it was not financially possible for us to do so at present.”
