archy & mehitabel
(Winnipeg Free Press)
Cockroach Archy literally has the soul of a reincarnated poet, and sultry stray cat Mehitabel counts a turn as Cleopatra among her nine lives in this engrossing collection of interwoven musings based on jazz-age writer Don Marquis' poems and comic strips.
Agile London, Ont., actor Jeff Culbert fully inhabits both characters, along with a handful of other eloquent creatures who share wise snippets of philosophy about their place on the food chain.
As Archy, Culbert fights a natural inclination to skitter out of the spotlight, choosing to stand up on his six legs as an unlikely defender of an unworthy mankind. As lush-like Mehitabel, he performs a lithe dance, embodying a hep cat who repeatedly falls on hard times, but somehow always lands on her feet.
Mehitabel constantly reminds Archy that she's refined, a lady, an aristocrat. Clearly, she protests too much. And she reveals herself in poignant tales of toms and litters and ultra-violent catfights that are anything but refined. Still, this lady is a champ. Like fellow survivor Archy, she has an unbreakable spirit, one that lingers after the lights go down.
— Pat St. Germain
"Engrossing … Jeff Culbert fully inhabits both characters, along with a handful of other eloquent creatures who share wise snippets of philosophy about their place on the food chain."
"Mehitabel reveals herself in poignant tales of toms and litters and ultra-violent catfights that are anything but refined. Still, this lady is a champ. Like fellow survivor Archy, she has an unbreakable spirit, one that lingers after the lights go down."
Pat St Germain, Winnipeg Sun
Our Rating: Your Average Rating:
archy and mehitabel (AUSABLE THEATRE / WINNIPEG FRINGE FESTIVAL)
½ (Winnipeg Sun)
Bugs would have much to tell us about life, death, beauty, love, and hate, if only we would listen.
London, Ont.'s Jeff Culbert plays archy, a nervous cockroach poet with a half-hearted yearning for an insect revolution; and mehitabel, a street-wise, pleasure-seeking grande dame of alley cats. The unlikely couple tell us stories from the places humans rarely go, where ants foretell the self-destruction of humanity and a cat exacts fur-ripping revenge on yet another faithless tom.
But the play, based on the poetry and sketches of New York writer Don Marquis and directed by Fringe fave Jayson McDonald (Giant Invisible Robot, Boat Load), is anything but downbeat. Culbert alternately scuttles and sashays across the stage, effortlessly inhabiting the bugs and birds and cats that populate these tales. archy is funny and wise, and mehitabel is tough and life-loving, and there is a lot to learn from this scrappy duo.
Jen Clark, Winnipeg Sun
Ausable Theatre
Venue 17, PTE (Colin Jackson Studio)
Review posted: Wednesday, July 22
Inhabiting the dual roles of both a former poet now reincarnated into a
politically conscious cockroach and a gracious feline who flutters about the stage is London, Ont. performer Jeff Culbert. Based on a series of newspaper columns by Don Marquis, Culbert has combed through the crème of the writer's crop to distill their essence for his pair of complimentary monologues. Archy is a skittering, curmudgeonly roach, distrustful of humankind while contemplating such anecdotes as what an ant once told him of an impending insect revolution; the aristocratically inclined Mehitabel briefs us on her own brazen points of view as she's batted about the cruel world. Culbert is able to imbue each with their own unique physical and verbal traits, making his rhapsodizing about the cosmos and fate an absolute pleasure to behold.
Aaron Graham, Uptown Magazine
Venue 17 – PTE – Colin Jackson Studio
In this one-person show, Jeff Culbert plays two characters – a cockroach named Archy who is trying to comprehend the behaviour of human beings and Mehitabel, a cat whose main concern is trying to find a good partner.
I really liked this show because it was not only very funny but also makes you think about humanity. Culbert does a nice job changing his delivery and posture between the two characters- portraying Archy as nervous and tense and Mehitabel as sophisticated and refined. Symbolically, I suppose you can say that Archy represents the brain while Mehitabel represents the heart. I highly recommend you check out this show.
- Justin Olynyk UMFM (U of Manitoba)
CBC Review:
So a cat and a cockroach walk into a theatre...
Well, okay. They don't walk in together, as Jeff Culbert takes on the roles of both Archy, the philosopher cockroach (he was a poet in a past life, you see) and his friend Mehitabel, the world-weary cat (she was Cleopatra before).
Based on Don Marquis' newspaper columns from the 1920s, there's some wonderful, poetic writing here. Take the world view of a moth, explaining to Archy why they fly into lights: "It is better to be part of beauty for one instant and be destroyed by it... We're like human beings used to be before they forgot how to have fun."
And there is much to be learned about humanity from Archy and Mehitabel.
"As a representative of the insect world," Archy says, "I have always wondered on what basis man makes his claim to superiority."
But for all that, this is a production that tests its audience. The dense text and lack of any linear plotline make keeping up with Archy and Mehitabel challenging. And Culbert's performance is technically good, but he makes the unfortunate choice of giving Archy a pinched, nasal voice - one that's fairly grating by the end of an hour.
This is one I'd recommend only for the daring Fringe-goer.
(Three stars)
Joff Schmidt
response from "Sanjuro":
This show got one more star than Blitz Kids!?!? Give me break. This was a great show,
And this enthusiastic blogger.
So... unexpected awesome...
Due to being recently unemployed, the only way I can afford to fringe is to work my ass off as a volunteer. (For those who have no idea wtf I'm talking about, the wpg fringe actually has its own entry in wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg_Fringe_Festival I had no idea ours was the 2nd largest in North America - spiffy.)
I was selling tickets for this show tonight, having squealed with glee when I read it in the program book, delighted it was being produced, then sorrowing because while I was working the venue, I was not ushering, so the viewing would have to wait until I accumulated enough volunteer hours to see it.
While I sold tickets, people asked "what kind of show is it?"
I answered "It is awesome!" (with great turtle-glee)
They said "oh, so you've seen it?"
Still gleeful, I said "no!"
They said "Then how do you know it's good?"
I said "Because I own the book, archie and mehitabel, and it KICKS ASS. This is going to be awesome!"
My explanation to those who asked was basically as follows:
Archie is a cockroach. He is a free verse poet. He writes his poetry by flinging his body at the individual keys of an old typewriter. He doesn't use capitol letters because he can't hold down the shift key. Many of his poems are about the cat, Mehitabel. She's the reincarnation of Cleopatra.
Most people's reactions were "that's weird" and "um... is it a comedy?"
To which I replied that it contains some comedy, but the intelligent kind and that the book really is seriously awesome (no.. seriously... I have an English lit degree... a university thinks I can tell these things) and they should see the play.
Some people even believed me. Some people heard me prattling on about it as they were waiting in line for the other show at the same location (different theatre) and when they found their show had sold out, came to buy tickets to our show. :)
Then the awesome happened. The usher came and sat with us and mentioned she'd seen this show three times already. My head whipped around and I said "wanna trade?" She said yes. So I ended up getting to usher it after all! Even better, a bunch of the people who had bought tickets for it because of my babbling were smiling and nodding at me as they left, a few even came up and told me I was right, it really did kick ass.
But it gets better because not only did I get to see something I knew would be great. It ended up being even better than I had expected.
I seriously was wondering how they were going to do a play about archie and mehitabel. Would they actually have a guy in a giant cockroach suit diving off a platform onto an over-sized typewriter? Would they incorporate live cats into the show? I was kind of expecting some elaborate costuming or massive stage props or... something spectacle-like. And because I've been in the venue before, and knew how small it was, I was wincing internally at the poor fuckers who might have to move around such elaborate stage equipment, and I wondered if they would have issues with time delays changing sets.
That was what I'd expected. It was not what I received.
Holy barking cheese batman! I'd never heard of this Jeff Culbert dude before but FUCK the guy can act.
I thought we were going to get some giant amusing mess.
We got a guy in a polite vest, suit pants and a tie. His only props were a chair and a piece of paper, and the spotlight that flicked on between each scene... the spotlight, from which he... scuttled.
No costumes. No makeup. No supporting cast. This man got up on stage with nothing and transformed before our eyes
Mind = blown.
The cockroach bit at the beginning was funny, it was convincing and well done. I liked it from the beginning, but it was a guy playing a part properly. That's normal. And then he took one step as the phrasing mentioned the cat, and during his second step, in mid sentence his body shifted. From skittering cockroach he rippled and became sinuous sensual Mehitabel the cat. She's trashy, she's slinky, she's vindictive and vengeful, but a lady... always a lady. Then the spotlight came back on... and he scuttled.
In addition to the two main characters he also portrayed two other cockroaches, an ant, and, best of all, a moth.
Archie the cockroach doesn't understand the moth's desire for self-immolation, and so questions it... and this same actor, flipping back and forth between the two personas gives such a vivid, passionate and *compelling* depiction of the moth's point of view that you will stop and remember it next time you see one dive-bombing itself into oblivion. You will note its noble death, and wonder... maybe it *is* worth it... maybe you, too, would be willing to cast off this pointless existance, if you knew it meant you would become part of something truly beautiful.
Damn but this guy is good! Real good. And damn but he has good taste in source material.
archie and mehitabel fucking rules. It ruled when Don Marquis first wrote it, and I didn't think it could really rule that much more.... but it does.
The turtle feels that your life will be improved if you saw this show.
Here is a link to the showtimes:
http://www.mtc.mb.ca/fr_performer.aspx?kw=Ausable%20Theatre
Go. See.
The turtle has spoken.
Wakefield Fringe
Archy and Mehitabel grabs John HardieActor and playwright John Hardie received the first collection of author Don Marquis' comic sketch masterpiece for his 30th birthday a few years back....
for me, "archy and mehitabel" is the must-see of the piggyback programme
don marquis published his rich free verse poems in 1927 about a poet whose soul has transmigrated into a cockroach (archy) who is forced to leap headfirst from the frame of a typewriter onto a key hence writing his poetry one letter at a time and hence without capital letters or punctuation to a lover of e.e.cummings this is very appealing and archy's uneasy relationship with the cat (mehitabel) who is a reincarnation of cleopatra provides much comic dramatic tension go and see it boss
from Scott Hebert Daly's blog:
Eric and I opted for an earlier night tonight. We left Kaffe 1870 and Robert Rooney trying to figure out when we can bring back Archy and Mehitabel (the play with the most buzz this year), passed by the United Church and Chaotica packing up for the journey home, and drove out of the village talking about some of the actors we met in the past few days.
My One Regret.
If I have one regret this year it's that I chose not to see Archy and Mehitabel.
It was impossible to see all twelve shows, and a choice had to be made so I made it.
I was told by many that I should have dropped another show. Robert Rooney thought my choice was dead wrong. I stood by my choices...and still do...but I was sad.
Save Point ended earlier than expected so, as Eric sat in Rutherford to order our dinner, I snuck in and caught the very last bit.
The audience, as one, sat entranced by the subtle dance and poetic voice on the stage. I was immediately caught up in the spell and witnessed a charming ending to a story that I was desperate to know more about.
Fringe winds down, Porkbellies gear up
By JAMES REANEY
london free Press, June 27, 2009
Months before the Fringe, London actor and impresario Culbert teamed with director Jayson McDonald to stage an impressive reading of American writer Don Marquis's tales of archy the cockroach with a poet's soul and mehitabel, the alley cat whose pedigree goes back to Cleopatra.
The Culbert-McDonald version being staged at the 2009 London Fringe's Black Shire Pub venue tonight at 8 p.m. is an even stronger tribute to Marquis, who died in 1937. Mehitabel's favourite motto of "toujours gai" will echo long in the memory after Culbert takes the show on the road to other Fringes.
London Fringe update: London's greatest poet & her son take in archy & mehitabel from the front row
Posted: 2009-06-26 23:42:36
Mom had wanted to see archy & mehitabel, fondly remembering the cat's credo of "toujours gai" from the days of her youth in St. Thomas. It is mom's theory that St. Thomas, with its railway ties to the U.S. was familiar with such aspects of American culture as the famous cockroach (archy) and cat (mehitabel). They were created by U.S. writer Don Marquis and had a life c. 1916-1937.
It was a bit of an effort for mom to get up & down the stairs at the Black Shire pub . . . which I mention because as sometimes happenss there is a fine event at a venue that is not accessilble. We settled in the front row & were v. impressed by the Jeff Culbert starring & Jayson McDonald directed production.
Back in 2007, dad & I had gone to see The Medium, a Sonja Gustafson-starring opera at the London Fringe. So a&m was another Fringe benefit in my life.
London's greatest poet & my mother Colleen Thibaudeau was v. taken with actor Jeff Culbert's scrappy way in the various beatings mehitabel lays on cats, humans, birds &c. fool enough to cross her.
She often smiled & laughed during the performance. We both were amazed to see how green/contemporary/activist Marquis was when archy was the focus . . . among the ironies of the a&m relationship (wasn't archy afraid that the cat might eat him in a moment of hunger?) is that the brain (archy) & brawn (mehitabel) never really work on the same side. Perhaps this can be read as a Marquis comment on the frequent failure of American intelligentsia & workers/underclass/masses to person the barricades as one . . . on the other hand, an a&m alliance against the cruel human oppressors would never last too long . . . mehitabel is too much of an individualist to play on anybody's team & if she has to live on scraps or worse she will do that without worrying about how other cats, here or in Africa, might survive.
Mom says that June Rose, her lifelong friend & my godmother, lived to say "toujours gai" when they were chumming around in San Tomas back in the day . . . it was good to hear "toujours gai" delivered a few classic times (mehitabel had many such statements, this was her favourite) so beautifully by Jeff.
Nancy van Dongen's light & sound manipulations take in Monk, some cool jazzy sounds for mehitabel's theme & moody shadows for archy to hide in . . . the sound right at the end should be adjusted a bit so mehitabel's final line about how she will keep on with just three legs or worse rings out as it should.
James Reaney (London Free Press blog)
i wish...if i were a cockroach
i would want to be like archy
but im not so
i want to be like jeff culbert
who else in london could be
an ant
a worm
a beetle
another cat
a poet
and a dancer
the black shire is hot
but jeff archy and mehitabel are hotter
toujours gai
[with apologies to don marquis and jeff culbert]
Peter Janes
Stunning!Kudos to Jeff, Jayson and Nancy on a brilliant adaptation !!...a virtuoso performance not to be missed ...Extremely relevant themes interwoven beautifully and capturing the often conflicted human condition. Always a bit wary of poetry adaptations but this was absolutely captivating and accessible .
redwinger
A madcap show with a cockroach and a wily alley cat giving each other, and us, their view of the world. Many, many moments that bring you up short and make you think about your own world.
I'm the Fringe Photographer. For an end-to-end look at the performance, go to http://web.me.com/jsamu50901, click on London Fringe 2009 and then on the Jeff Culbert album.
Joe Samuels
insects of the world...I was captivated from the musings of the thoughtful Archy to the ever-the-lady Mehitabel. Jeff does a wonderful job!
Thought Provoking Fun
Jeff Culbert's one man show is a comical tale and a sly satire of the human condition. He slips easily between his whimsical characters and brings their contrasting viewpoints to life, changing persona and manner so completely and smoothly that he makes each metamorphosis seem almost real. There are some breathtaking soliloquies and many crafty verses. I recommend archy & mehitabel to those inclined toward a more thought provoking type of fun. But be warned: afterward you may never be able to look at insects in quite the same way.
dhey (Don Hey)
This opening weekend review has been posted on behalf of Theatre in London.ca.
A willdly imaginative poetry performance
With a deft otherworldly mastery, Jeff Culbert brings the poetry of Don Marquis to surreal life.
What you see not an extraneous props or extras, just Culbert's evocative imagery and voice expressing verse that can funny, profound and disturbing and often all at the same time. While spoken poetry is not for me typically, Culbert swept me along for the animal world creates until you find yourself a part of that world with a silky envelopment of the voice as well as a few select pieces of music and sound effects to complete the aural deal with your imagination.
If you like poetry well told, look no further.
Kenneth Chisholm
Insight into humanity from a bug's viewpoint
By HERMAN GOODDEN
The supremely affable Jeff Culbert is well established as a theatrical linchpin in this town, the go-to guy whose enthusiasm and passion make productions happen and who is ultra-competent, not just as an actor and director, but as a playwright and dramaturge as well. Outside of the theatre world, Culbert is a tireless crusader for environmental causes, has worked as a columnist for The Londoner, a radio host on CHRW and on most weekends holds forth with his guitar as a folk musician.
Perhaps because so much of his theatre work involves new plays, Culbert occasionally likes to go rooting through dusty shelves and trunks in search of neglected scripts that deserve another run.
While one would be loath to call the Irish playwright Sean O'Casey obscure, no one else around these parts had thought to mount one of his scripts in decades, making Culbert's student production of Juno and the Paycock a revelation.
Robertson Davies was understood to be a top-flight novelist who spent the first half of his literary life labouring in the wrong vineyard. Those early Davies plays were archaic fluff, we were told, until Culbert proved otherwise, producing a series of the dazzling little gems.
"If somebody's good and most people don't know about it, then I'm going to be their champion," Culbert says.
The fruit of Culbert's latest expedition into the archives of oblivion, archy and mehitabel, will be premiered next Friday night at the Black Shire Pub as part of the London Fringe, running until June 27. Culbert's latest one-man show is derived from the whacked-out columns of an all but forgotten early 20th-century American newspaper columnist (with a couple of less profitable sidelines as a poet and playwright) named Don Marquis (1878-1937).
Culbert explains the setup: "Archy is a cockroach who jumps on Don Marquis's typewriter keys every night and types out his message. The writing is all in lower case (and) the words 'exclamation point' are written out because archy doesn't have the strength to push down the shift key." (How he does the return when he gets to the end of a line of type, you're not supposed to ask.)
"Archy interviews ants and fleas and spiders and talks about the different things he observes, but they all end up being commentaries on humanity. I think of them as little fables. Archy believes in reincarnation and says that in his previous life he was a human being, a not very attractive free verse poet, a great soul in many ways, but he noticed that the more beautiful poets could write verse that was worse than his, but get up and recite it and everyone thought it was wonderful.
"Originally mehitabel was just one of the creatures archy reported on, but Don Marquis liked her so much and his readers liked her so much that she soon got equal billing. She's an alley cat. She's a dancer and an artist. She's got a bad leg, so she dances on three. And if another leg goes, she'll dance on two, and then one. Her only goal in life is to give her best to her art, but these damn kittens keep coming along. What the hell did she do to deserve all these kittens? Mehitabel also claims to believe in reincarnation -- maybe just because she likes the idea -- and believes that she was Cleopatra in a previous life."
Culbert first encountered the writings of Marquis's versifying roach (the "Vermin Voltaire," Christopher Morley dubbed him) in high school and became fascinated by archy's insights into all kinds of political systems and his bug's eye view of environmentalism. When a dead moth gums up the works of Marquis's typewriter, the shift key is permanently on and archy lets rip with a poem on CAPITALISM.
A solid diet of archy the hectoring idealist would soon pale. Mehitabel is essential to the success of the columns and Culbert's show.
"I think of them as very yin/yang," Culbert says. "Very complementary. Archy wants to change things and is often unsure of his own motives. Mehitabel just wants to have a good time, but she always keeps her dignity."
James Reaney review – archy reading
Always loved archy & mehitabel, the Don Marquis poems about the cockroach & the cat in a Noo Yawk newsroom. Well, today we have theatre ace Jeff Culbert reading archy's ode to a moth . . . & we're off right now to see his & Jayson McDonald's one-person plays (Jayson's is Fall Fair) at the Arts Project. It is an excellent double bill and officially opens tonight (Thursday).
Yesterday, my mom was interested to hear we were off to see archy & mehitabel. She recalled there was a phrase that was repeated in many poems & couldn't think of it at the moment.
I am sure the phrase she was trying to recall is "toujours gai." That is mehitabel's motto as she recounts the "ups and downs" (another phrase that recurs) of her nine lives.
In what is still at the rehearsed reading stage as he prepares for the London Fringe in June, Jeff Culbert is terrific as both archy (ur-environmentalist, complainer, seer, visionary, poet, parodist, wit) and mehitabel (bohemian, wild, romantic, dancer, singer, survivor).
For some reason, I thought the poems were romantic, sweet, owl & the pussycat . . . that sort of thing. Not so, Jeff said.
Jeff is right. As he should be. (In at least one poem which he didn't read, mehitabel tries to eat archy & he retreats into the innards of Don Marquis's typewriter until it is safe to come out. In another she tells archy she has eaten cockroaches in the back alleys where she loves to roam & he urges her to curb this tendency).
Jeff doesn't go into the mechanics of how archy came to type his free verse on that newsroom typewriter . . . his focus is on the characters & their memorable words & true humanity.
It will surely be a Fringe hit . . . and you should get down to the Arts Project (203 Dundas St., artsproject.ca) during what will be a brief & glorious run for archy & mehitabel this week.
"Jeff Culbert is terrific as both archy (ur-environmentalist, complainer, seer, visionary, poet, parodist, wit) and mehitabel (bohemian, wild, romantic, dancer, singer, survivor)."
"his focus is on the characters & their memorable words & true humanity. "
"It will surely be a Fringe hit"
"a brief & glorious run for archy & mehitabel"
………James Reaney, London Free Press
"There are some breathtaking soliloquies and many crafty verses. I recommend archy & mehitabel to those inclined toward a more thought provoking type of fun. But be warned: afterward you may never be able to look at insects in quite the same way."
……………Don Hey (dhey), Theatre in London
the play with the most buzz this year … The audience, as one, sat entranced by the subtle dance and poetic voice on the stage. I was immediately caught up in the spell
………..Scott Hebert Daly, Wakefield Fringe blogger-in-residence
"Engrossing … Jeff Culbert fully inhabits both characters, along with a handful of other eloquent creatures who share wise snippets of philosophy about their place on the food chain … Mehitabel reveals herself in poignant tales of toms and litters and ultra-violent catfights that are anything but refined. Still, this lady is a champ. Like fellow survivor Archy, she has an unbreakable spirit, one that lingers after the lights go down."
………..Pat St Germain, Winnipeg Free Press
½ Bugs would have much to tell us about life, death, beauty, love, and hate, if only we would listen … stories from the places humans rarely go … Culbert effortlessly inhabits the bugs and birds and cats that populate these tales. Archy is funny and wise, and Mehitabel is tough and life-loving, and there is a lot to learn from this scrappy duo.
……….Jen Clark, Winnipeg Sun
very funny but also makes you think about humanity … I highly recommend you check out this show.
……….Justin Olynyk UMFM, Winnipeg
Culbert is able to imbue each with their own unique physical and verbal traits, making his rhapsodizing about the cosmos and fate an absolute pleasure to behold.
……….Aaron Graham, Uptown Magazine (Winnipeg)
wonderful, poetic writing … and there is much to be learned about humanity from Archy and Mehitabel.
………Joff Schmidt, CBC Manitoba
BARE BONES "Engrossing" Winnipeg Free Press
½ "There is a lot to learn from this scrappy duo" Winnipeg Sun
"an absolute pleasure to behold" Uptown Magazine, Winnipeg
"wonderful, poetic writing" CBC Manitoba
"very funny but also makes you think about humanity" UMFM, Winnipeg
"a glorious run … Jeff Culbert is terrific James Reaney, London Free Press
"breathtaking soliloquies, thought-provoking fun" Don Hey, Theatre in London
"the play with the most buzz this year … The audience, as one, sat entranced" Scott Hebert Daly, Wakefield Fringe blogger-in-residence