On Friday, March 29th, Lindsay Little Theatre brings John Hughes’ cult classic The Breakfast Club from the big screen to the small stage.
Adapted by playwright Altaire Gural, The Breakfast Club features a company of talented young local performers who bring to life the iconic characters from the famous 1985 film.
As one of the most important films in the history of motion pictures, most audiences are familiar with The Breakfast Club. Quietly released in 1985 to an unsuspecting public, the film became one of the biggest hits of the decade, and launched the careers of Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall, and Judd Nelson, who became affectionately known to audiences as the Brat Pack.
The story of five misfits from different social cliques who are forced to spend a Saturday in detention together along with their strict principal made an emotional impact on viewers.
It revealed that outward perceptions may not be reality and that, despite coming from different social groups, people share a collective human condition.
The most unique aspect of The Breakfast Club and its characters is that they have a timeless appeal. Despite the film being more than 30 years old, it still manages to resonate with generation after generation of audiences, staying remarkably fresh and still having the same message and impact now as when it was first released.
“The film has stayed relatable,” states Logan Gerzymisch, who at age 16 is making her directorial debut as co-director of the production.
“As a teenager I watch it and I understand why the characters are feeling the way they do. Principals can be mean and irritating bullies, and then your home life is built into who you are during your time in high school. I think it’s important for teenagers to see that how they can relate to this old movie now, and see how even then kids were feeling alone and isolated and that they get it.
“The classic stereotypes are still in high schools, but I think they’ve mellowed out since the 1980s. I’m a preppy kid, but I know who the band kids, or the smart kids, or the sports kids are. We see it, but we all get along. Our friend groups don’t intersect as much, but it’s nice to see that we all hang out together and be friends a little bit.”
VIDEO: The Breakfast Club (1985)
“I think having a teenage co-director and mainly teenage actors in a play about teenagers is important for this show,” adds co-director Nate Copeland, who is acting as a mentor to Logan in her directorial debut.
“I think you need a young person’s perspective to do this show. The actors have been incredibly focused. We did have a rough start having to cancel rehearsals due to weather, so we are working on a shorter time frame. But everyone is coming to each rehearsal with personal character development and they know their lines. They’ve been building relationships with one another and they come to us with ideas.”
With one of the strongest youth communities of any theatre company in the Kawarthas, Lindsay Little Theatre’s production of The Breakfast Club is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the talents of young performers. The play features Sophie Ballam as Claire Standish, Colin Dussome as Andrew Clark, Tyrnan O’Driscoll as John Bender, Brooklyn Currins as Allison Reynolds, and Ce’nedra Goswell as Brian Johnson, with Sophie Kourtsidis as Principal Vernon and Nate Copeland as Carl the Janitor.
While they are portraying the same characters from the film, the actors have been encouraged to fill in the back stories of the characters more so than in the movie, which has led them to find new depths in the familiar characters.
“In the movie you get some back story on the characters, but you don’t get very much,” Logan points out. “We asked the actors what they think their back story would be if they would go deeper.”
“I’m still playing a teenage criminal, but I’m bringing my own take on his emotions,” says Tyrnan O’Driscoll, who takes on the role of ‘social deviant’ John Bender. “Ultimately Bender is a damaged person. People put their thumb over him and treat him like scum, so he just plays the role. But he really wants to connect, and he doesn’t know how to do it. He wants to be your friend, but he pushes you away before you push him away.”
“I feel like I already relate to Allison, so I’m not changing it a lot from the movie,” says Brooklyn Currins of ‘goth girl’ Allison Reynolds. “She’s pretty quiet and I can relate to a lot of her problems. I don’t talk a lot either, unless I trust someone. But at school I just don’t talk. If I was stuck in a detention room with a bunch of strangers, I’d probably sit at the back and be weird.”
Meanwhile, Ce’nedra Goswell is taking the task of playing the nerdy Brian despite the fact that she is a different gender than the original character in the film. Although she says she’s playing the character much the same as Anthony Michael Hall did, she is tweaking the character in other ways.
“I’m trying to be similar to the movie, but trying to do a different kind of nerd character,” Ce’nedra says. “Instead of being prim and proper, my version of Brian is more manic. He’s more concerned with getting As than with his appearance. He’s very academic based and doesn’t worry about how he looks.”
But not all of the performers in The Breakfast Club have actually seen the film. As Colin Dussome reveals, he’s never seen the movie, and now that he is in the stage show he is even staying further away from seeing it.
“I’ve never watched the movie, so I don’t know what’s different in what I’m doing,” Colin says. “I want to bring my own spin to the character, and I feel if I watch the movie at this point I’m just going to give out too much of Emilio Estevez instead of myself. I want to play me being Andrew, instead of me being Emilio being Andrew.”
“I tried to base Andrew after the kids I went to school that were athletes,” Colin continues. “They seemed to have a better posture than I did, because they were confident and because they played sports. They got the girls, and got whatever they wanted because they were athletes and thought they were more popular. I’m just carrying myself the way they would when they walked into the room. Everyone would look at them. I try to bring that to the character.”
Each member of the vibrant case brings something unique to the table, much like each of the characters they portray brought their own important element to the narration of the story. Together, they are rediscovering the depth of the characters, and the powerful meaning within the source material that has spoken to audiences for over three decades.
“When they first come on the stage the characters are all portrayed as stereotypes,” Tyrnan points out. “They are the criminal, the athlete, the brain, the weird girl, and the beautiful girl. But they are obviously not that at all. They are much more, and you see that through the course of the play.
“The characters feel that they have to be those stereotypes because society tells them they have to, but by the end of it they realize that, no, they don’t need to be. They can be more than the rich pretty girl, the brain, or the criminal. All of us are more than that when we walk in.”
“The feeling of not belonging in youth is never going to go away, and that’s a big part of this script of misfits being forced together,” Ce’nedra adds. “Society puts stereotypes on people, and you have to go out of your way to break those stereotypes in the way you act.”
No matter who you are and when you first saw it, The Breakfast Club remains a potent and important story about alienation, social constructs, and understanding that manages to speak to people of all ages, no matter the era they were teenagers in. This already ensures that The Breakfast Club will be a hit.
However, there is something special going on at Lindsay Little Theatre within its youth culture, and the young actors coming out of that theatre are among the most impressive in the area. Come to see The Breakfast Club to relive the story and the characters that you love, but stay to see it created by an exceptional company of players. Lindsay Little Theatre’s real-life Brat Pack make up some of the most dedicated and professional young talent in the area.
The Breakfast Club runs from Friday, March 29th to Sunday, March 31st. Friday and Saturday shows start at 8 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday afternoon. Tickets are available in person or by phone at the Academy Theatre box office (2 Lindsay St. S., Lindsay, 705-324-911), online at ticketmaster.ca, or at the door the night of each performance.
