No bed of roses
http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/entertainment/article/397631--no-bed-of-roses
Play recreates 1969 Lennon and Ono stunt
JOHN KEILLOR
December 15, 2009
It's been 40 years since John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their 1969
Montreal bed-in, a peace protest that was celebrated for its optimism
and mocked for its naivety.
It got huge press coverage worldwide, and Toronto playwright Risha
Yorke's new production, John/Yoko Bed Piece, explores how both
today's political left and right still fail to grasp Lennon and Ono's
subtle populism.
"Today you see liberal celebrities wooing politicians," says Yorke by
phone, "but a president can be replaced. His decisions can all be
reversed by whoever comes after him. What John and Yoko did was reach
millions of people through the media. That kind of influence is much
more permanent."
John and Yoko's seven day bed-in at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel
included visits from many of pivotal figures who visited the famous
couple, including hippie guru Timothy Leary and conservative
cartoonist Al Capp. In spite of the many political differences that
John and Yoko's guests may have had, they all objected to the Vietnam
war. Yorke believes that the inclusiveness of the event was critical.
"Al Capp was a right wing peace activist coming from a radically
different position," says Yorke. "He wanted to believe in John and
Yoko, but he (Capp) saw them as attempting something impossible. John
and Yoko believed the way peace would finally work was with everyone
on Earth being ready and willing to try."
That's a tall order, but doesn't mean the bed-in was futile. This
sincere public debate made peace a headline. In that way, the event
was a success.
In order to evoke the zeitgeist surrounding the bed-in, the
multidisciplinary production company draft 89 includes choreographed
movement and a musical score by Graeme Porter, who stars as Lennon
alongside Sharon Marquez as Ono. The stage should be fairly saturated
with the spirit of 1969.
"I rely on my actors to do a lot of homework," explains Yorke, who's
also directing this play. "I did over three years of my own research,
and have been Facebooking with Yoko. The quest is to help people be
able to say no to violence.
"John makes a really good comment," recalls Yorke, "Ghandi did it
right, he fought war with peace, but that was really frightening so
they killed him."
Yorke sees the Lennon-Ono bed-in as a sort of clue, made from
celebrity and media, that will lead to a revolution of human
consciousness that refuses violence altogether.
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More Details
John/Yoko Bed Piece at The Toronto Centre for the Arts, Studio
Theatre, tomorrow through Jan. 2, 2010.
.
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