Jeff Irving in The December Man
How to Play a Troubled Character in a Poignant Drama
Jeff Irving visited Montreal's L'Ecole Polytechnique while researching the role of Jean Fournier, a troubled young man who could not escape the tragedy of Dec. 6,1989.
The character of Jean Fournier in Colleen Murphy's award winning play The December Man has been with Jeff Irving for a while.
In fact, after writing to Montreal’s L’Ecole Polytechnique to assist in his actor’s research, which included talking to engineers and psychiatrists and taking karate lessons, Jeff Irving was politely informed the college does not encourage publicity regarding the Montreal Massacre. They do honour the 14 fallen women once a year, but then for the rest of the year "it is completely forgotten."
On Dec,6, 2009, it will be 20 years since one of the darkest days in Canadian history. “I was very nervous going into Polytechnique and I don’t know French at all so I was nervous that I would be accosted and I would be saying “Je ne parle pas Francais, I don’t know…” recalls Irving.
“I went up the escalator and I found the room, and I walked and I looked in the window. There was a class going on and they all looked at me and I gasped. So I pulled away behind and I didn’t know what to do, so I sat in the hallway, and started taking notes trying to figure out what it would have been like for all these 45 guys to pack into this really tight hallway which is like a dead end.
I sat there and mulled about it and then the class was finished five minutes later. Everybody went out. I thought here is my chance, so I went into the classroom and sat in there."
"I had my camera with me, so I had been taking pictures. I saw where he would have stood up in front of the class, where the women would have been murdered, and where the guys would have gone out of the room. After I was done taking this in and getting constant chills, I took my camera and I put it in the middle of my chest, put it on Record and then recorded my escape from the school going down the escalator that I talk about ( in The December Man ) and through the school and down. So I have this tape of me leaving. Then I went back into the school and sat in the cafeteria and sat by myself reading a book. I did not understand everything everyone was saying, but being a bit of a loner like my character Jean is. It was a great experience and it helped so much with getting the images when I needed to speak about them to really keep it alive.”
Part Two - Jeff Irving discusses the reaction of student audiences to an event that happened before their time.
The December Man continues at The Berkeley Street Theatre to May 17.
