Interview with Terry Tweed


Terry Tweed has worked in most major theatres across Canada as both an actor as well as a director. Her credits as an actor include Steel Magnolias and The Dresser with Theatre Aquarius, The Importance of Being Ernest and The Winter's Tale for Theatre New Brunswick and the Legend of the Avro Arrow for the Canadian Stage Company.

In the original production of Balconville, Terry played Muriel for which she was nominated for an Actra award. She spoke with Geoffrey Siskind from her home in Toronto.

One of the things that is interesting about Balconville is the mixture of both English and French audiences that came to see the play. What language did the cast interact in?

It was a mixture of both languages. Most of us were perfectly bilingual. We were quite comfortable mucking around in both languages. Everyone was at home. When different actresses came in to play Irene there was some changes, some had no French whatsoever, but generally we were comfortable speaking both.

We didn't realise what we were doing was important. It was like we woke up one day and found ourselves with this great production. We weren't setting out to do a great play. We were working hard to get a good play off the ground. We had no idea that it would end up being what it ended up becoming.

Did any of the tensions portrayed in the play carry over into cast interactions?

It's interesting, people really wanted to find tensions, I felt. Primarily Anglos, they would try and get all the dirt on us. You see actors don't give a damn about the language tensions when working on a production. It's not about what language you speak, it's about whether you can cut it or not. If you suck, get off the stage! Actors depend on each other. It's like being on a life boat, if someone's trying to save you, do you really care what language they speak? We really weren't aware of any language tensions.

The ending was constantly changing. Why?

We were trying to build the elements together. We were never quite sure if the ending was the best ending for the story. It was a battle of how to be fruitful without being fuzzy wuzzy. I feel that Johnny should have died. That would have been truthful to the story. There are many people who don't get out of Pointe St. Charles, don't get out of that spiral. There was a discussion as to whether [my character] Muriel should die. Guy [Sprung, the director] couldn't kill her off. Her anger kept her alive. The character Johnny was based on in real life did in fact die. David [Fenarrio] had trouble dealing with having the character also die. Perhaps it was too close for him. Too personal.

Looking back almost twenty years later have things changed that much?

I don't know. There is a lot more bilingualism now, I suppose. It is interesting that so much attention has been paid to the language tensions. David is a real lefty. People got so side tracked on the linguistic issues that the real meaning of the play tended to get lost. It was more about that we French and English had to work together because the bastards will kill us all. Westmount was the common enemy of both groups, French and English. And David was not wrong. Look at where we've gone. The country's in a mess. The rich are running it now. It's like it's your fault if you're poor. As for the language tensions, well I imagine that they're actually worse now than they were back when the FLQ were throwing bombs. Look at the tensions around the last referendum. It's ongoing.

What are you favorite memories from your days in Balconville?

What I loved most about playing in Balconville was playing to a mixed audience. Especially at Place des Arts. Every night there was a packed auditorium of 1,300 people, English and French. It was really wonderful.

I also loved working with Guy. He gave me incredible freedom to try anything I wanted to.

In my acting career there are maybe three shows that sit in my soul as important. This was definitely one of three. It was a great gig to do.

You know, when I auditioned for it I didn't have the knowledge of the blue collar lifestyle. I thought, "I'm the wrong person to do this." The whole life and language of these characters was different to anything I had ever experienced before in my life. I went in and read. I originally thought I was auditioning for a different role, but Guy asked me to read for Muriel. I did it, and as I was walking out of the building I thought, "I'm not right for this part at all, Oh, to hell with it, I'll let them figure that out on their own." And then when I got it I asked Peter MacNeill, who was from a blue collar background, to keep tabs on what I was doing, and the moment I launched into a stereotype, stop me. I wanted the character to be real. The play had to be real or it wouldn't have worked.