7 Stories

Ian C. Nelson is Assistant Director of Libraries, University of
Saskatchewan; and Director, Saskatoon Gateway Plays, Regina Summer
Stage, and La Troupe du Jour.

Panych is an immensely creative triple-threat actor-director-playwright,
never shy about speaking out and always willing to challenge his
audiences. With productions at the Vancouver Arts Club Theatre and with
his controversial direction of the fortunes of Tamahnous Theatre
(1983-85), Panych has gained a notoriety for acerbic reactions to both
critic and audience alike. One of his Tamahnous seasons he characterized
as “vastly unpopular.” Nevertheless, theatre audiences nationwide
are likely to remember with relish his antinuclear cabaret piece, which
toured under the symbolic title Last Call!

Uncompromisingly bizarre, 7 Stories is a play about life on the ledge:
a man about to commit suicide from seven stories up is interrupted by a
series of people opening windows on either side of him. The supremely
self-absorbed neighbors call on him to act as confidant and arbitrator
in their petty domestic concerns, ignoring both the psychological and
physical danger his position would seem to suggest. Through the
vignettes of dialogue that are overheard from each window ledge, a black
comedy about self-obsessed people emerges. The play has the linguistic
cleverness of Stoppard and a host of resonances of those famous
absurdists Simpson, Beckett, and Ioneseo. “My faith in the days of the
week has been seriously undermined. . . . There are other places to go
besides out. There’s in. There’s around. There’s under. Over.
Between.” Perhaps one should not be surprised that Panych’s play
began as a commission from Larry Lillo at the Grand Theatre to write a
musical about Jack the Ripper!

7 Stories won an unprecedented six Jessie Richardson Awards for its
initial Vancouver production and went on to be produced at Toronto’s
Tarragon Theatre. It is a play that will surprise and delight with its
wit and its insight into human interactions. The author has said that it
is “not about death or even suicide really, but it is about the way
your own mortality hits you in the face sometimes. Suicide is a big
metaphor for a lot of things.”