The Singing Lamb: How did The Book of Judith come about?

Michael Rubenfeld: In 2005, a good friend of mine who was working as a personal assistant to a woman named Judith Snow, who was a quadriplegic woman; he came up to me and asked me if I knew of anyone would be interested in making love to her. And I said, no. I didn’t; but what a question. It was an amazing question. And I suggested that we turn it into theatre, because that’s what I do, I’m a theatre guy. Usually if a question is good enough and it sits with me for a long enough time, I’d want to explore it through a piece of theatre. So he went back to Judith and Judith said that she wanted to meet me and that’s sort of where it began. We did a first version of the show for the Rhubarb Festival at the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and in that production, Judith came on stage naked and we dressed her because one of the things that Judith says people have a difficult time dealing with was her appearance. So we brought her onstage and gave them the opportunity to stare without feeling guilty about staring and we dressed her onstage. Then from there, we got some funding for the play and the version we have now is the current incarnation so it’s about four years in the making.

What was your first impression of Judith?

That she wasn’t as strange as I’d thought she’d be. When I was given permission to just spend time with her, and after about five minutes, I forgot that she was disabled. But I was also fascinated. I was like, “Wow, you look amazing.” She can only move her head, her body doesn’t move but very quickly, it stopped being about her appearance and about her. She’s a very wise woman, she’s almost 60, and she’s got a master’s degree. She’s very, very intelligent and she travels the world advocating for disabilities. I was just kind of blown away by the way she was. And I felt quite stupid that I wanted to just do something as basic as a play about her sex life because she was so much more than her sex life. But of course my brain went to that; I think it’s common of people. Do you even have sex? How do you have sex? Sex is so much on everyone’s brains that it’s an interesting question to attach to someone who’s a quadriplegic.

What was the audience’s reception of the early versions of the play?

It was all over the place. A lot of discomfort; it made a lot of people uncomfortable but it quickly turned into comfort, I think. I think lot of people were quite moved. Some people were pissed off. So it was all over the place, which is what we wanted. It was pretty extreme for some people and for some people it was just like ‘okay’. We thought it was a great beginning.

Why do it in a tent?

We decided to do it in a tent because we didn’t want to do it in a theatre; we were very clear on that. It felt like it needed to exist beyond just being a play and our first thought was to do it in a church because we’re taking a very biblical angle to the show and we call the play the Book of Judith, which is taken from the actual book of Judith. We really wanted it to be a ceremony, we wanted it to feel traditional so our first thought was to do it in the church. We were actually going to do it in the Music Gallery but it felt like there were just too many complications; it was getting complicated to find the right church and so we thought, what do people do when you can’t find a church?

You get a tent!

You pitch a tent; exactly! You build your own church. So that’s why.

How is the Book of Judith different from anything else you’ve worked on?

Well we have a 16-person choir in the show and Andrew Penner has composed music for this choir; for me and the choir. And the choir is made up of members from the disabled community and members from the non-disabled community. The show essentially is a sermon that I’m giving as myself so I’m playing myself in this show. I’ve never done that before and the piece is really about how Judith changed my life and how I would then like to change other people’s lives with Judith’s message. Judith is an advocate so what she has to say applies to everyone in that choir who’s onstage who are there as a choir but also there as a representative of a culture that is foreign to a lot of people in the non-disabled community. I just feel like the show is really about something and it’s really hard to do something about things and not have it be sacramental. I think the show has something really important to say and I’m saying it; but it’s not my words, the words are like a gift to me. It’s also quite a spectacle, it’s a show! It doesn’t even feel like a play. There’s a woman in the choir named Alex Bulmer; she’s the choir leader and she’s a blind woman who’s come in from England to do the show. And she says that she forgets that she’s in a play; she thinks that it’s just this thing that we’re doing. So it really feels like a church.

How did the collaboration between you and Andrew Penner (Sunparlour Players) come about?

Andrew’s an old friend of mine; we used to do theatre together. And we’ve always been good friends and when he started with the Sunparlour Players – I knew him before, when he was just playing on his own – and I’ve seen him turn into the genius that he is and we’ve always maintained this conversation, this creative and artistic dialogue about the work that I create, the work that he creates and there’s a mutual admiration. I’m just in love with his music and his band and we’ve been wanting to work together but we couldn’t quite figure out the right thing. And while we were writing the play, myself and Sarah Stanely who’s the director of the play and the co-creator, when we realized that it was going to be a musical and we wanted it to exist in a tent and have a gospel and a feeling of faith to the music, my first thought was that it had to be Andrew because he’s such a preacher! The music is out of this world; it’s great.

So is this your first time working together?

This is our first time working creatively together. We’ve acted on stage together; we were in The Tempest together! But this is our first time making something together.

How was it to see him create this music and work with you?

Well it’s a gift in some ways because I play myself in the show and it’s me telling my story with music. So essentially, it’s a musical that comes from me and so it’s been amazing because he’s really worked in a way that it’s very much his music and a lot of his words but it really feels like he’s written for me to sing; and so it’s kind of like a dream come true. It’s exactly what I wanted and he’s just so talented; he kind of blows me away. And he’s humble within it all; his relationship to his own pride and ego is inspiring too and I think it connects to why his music is so great. It’s bigger than him, bigger than us, beyond him; and so he’s been perfect.

How did the inclusion of Over the Top happen?

I knew that because of the music element, I really wanted to find a way to include the music community for the show because I thought that it would be something exiting for the music community. But I’m not tapped into the music community and Eric Warner was recommended to me from Evan Newman who works at Outside Music and is Andrew’s manager and he recommended Eric and we hired him to do publicity for the show and that was when the idea to come into Over the Top came. He always has a theatre element to Over the Top and he came and saw a reading of the play with the music and he fell madly in love with it and said let’s do this.

How do you feel about the festival being all ages and open to everyone?

I think it’s necessary. When something can be universal I think that the more people something can reach, the more inclusive it becomes. And I think it’s amazing; I think it’s perfect, it’s great to connect the Book of Judith because the Book of Judith is very much about what Judith has to say about inclusion and so the fact that it’s connected to a festival that is inclusionary makes a lot of sense; a really great match.

Is there anything that you’re looking forward to this week?

I’m looking forward to seeing Sebastien Grainger; I really like his album.

It’s a really good album!

I’m looking forward to Think About Life, I’ve never seen them!

I’ve never seen them either; I may be there too!

Yeah, I think they may be playing Summerworks too.

Awesome! Finally, how do you hope people would come out of this play feeling?

Changed, whatever that means. I think some people are not going to like it; it may piss some people off because it’s pretty provocative but I hope that people are moved. But more importantly, I hope that it inspires people to think differently about disabilities.

That sounds great. And if you were a singing animal, what would you be?

I think I’d be an ape!

Why?

They just seem so jovial and so pleased to be whatever they are, but they’re also kind of brutish. And they’re like, “No, I’m going to do whatever I want; I’m going to scratch my balls right here – and sing about it!”

The Book of Judith runs from May 19th to 31st at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health grounds at 1001 Queen St. West as part of the Over the Top Festival. Tickets are $20.