Written by David McConnell, GAC Volunteer Writer
It can easily be said that Jay Wilson has spent a lifetime on stage if you cast your eyes back onto his pedigree. Around Guelph, he is known for writing and producing “Guelph in Postcards” performed as backyard theatre at the Guelph Museum and for Jay Walking Guelph, his memorable and informative Storytelling Walking Tours. But his theatrical footfalls echo back further than this. He began strutting his hours upon the stage at the Galt Little Theatre and then followed this with a stint at the Gravenhurst Opera House. He even spent time with the National Tap Dance Company of Canada. But it was at Theatre Collingwood where he developed “Pandora’s Socks”, an entertainment company that engaged the senses of both children and seniors through puppetry, story and minimal, if any, stage effects. It was during this time that Jay realized that “a one man show without props can still be powerful if good storytelling is at its core.”
Evidently it can be seen from this preamble that little in Jay’s life involves silence and yet this is where I met up with him. It was here at SILENCE on Essex Street in Guelph, a small but well-known venue for great music and other artful offerings, that he revealed an array of characters and stories to a rapt audience. His multiple character show was based on eight “delightful, touching Irish monologues”, as he calls them, taken from a book written by Charlene Herrold a close family friend from his days growing up in Galt. This book, “Lilt of Laughter, Trace of Tears”, is the borrowed title for Jay’s one-man adaptation.
The titles themselves render insight into what some of the monologues reveal: “The Tourist’s Dollar”, “The Courting Notion” and “Tom Daly’s Demise”, are but three of the stories that provide brief tragicomic interpretations on economics, romance and death. Like Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” where “a country road, a tree” are the only setting references needed, Wilson awakens his myriad of characters, both male and female, through visual changes moving from adornments such as a wool sweater to a kitchen apron to a vest to a cap and walking stick. Simple, yet effective. These eight monologues, brought skillfully to life through household collectibles, as well as some necessary voice changes and occasional physical contortions, managed to evoke over an hour of intermission free spontaneous “laugh tears” from the gathering. There is no doubt he has a plethora of quotes and stories running through his head and is in constant practice, like any good artist, trying to improve on and add to his collection. And there is more to come. Some of Jay’s walking tour patrons, more elderly now yet still desiring insight, and entertainment, have asked him about the possibility of delivering a show inside rather than out which would have less walking and more sitting involved. He will do just that by providing an indoor, multi-media presentation of his creation at the River Run Centre on September 26th called “Guelph Early Days”. This will take place during Guelph’s “Culture Days” celebration which runs from September 20th to October 13th. Make sure to catch this and other of his performances when opportunities arise. Check out Jay’s website for information about his other tours and events!
