The Shape of Home

The poetry of Al Purdy comes to life

Al Purdy’s poetry was about finding beauty in the everyday, discovering art and meaning in the mundane. His was the language of the working class—a description of drinking in a run-down tavern, waiting at the graveside on a grey January day, the silhouette of a great blue heron against Roblin Lake—there was no pretentious vocabulary, no words that called for a dictionary at hand. Despite this, his free verse and sometimes oblique approach can prove a barrier to understanding his work. Such was the case with Frank Cox-O’Connell, director, creator and performer in The Shape of Home – Songs in Search of Al Purdy, a production of Festival Players being staged at The Eddie Hotel and Farm until July 31. He was asked to take on the project of bringing the poetry of Al Purdy to the stage, and was sent a list of samples by fellow performer Hailey Gillis. “Hailey reached out to me and sent me the poetry of Al Purdy, and it was at a moment where I was wondering what to do next, as an artist. When I first read his words, I didn’t get it. It didn’t immediately connect with me. I agreed to start the project only because Marni Jackson and all these other amazing musicians all really connected with the source material, and it wasn’t until we started to turn them into songs that suddenly the writing opened up for me. It took this new way in for me to appreciate him as a writer, so I felt as if I was very much the first audience on the project,” he said. “As a listener, that’s how I found my way in. He has something very kinetic, there is something about the energy of it and his lust for life that it feels like it suits rock and roll and folk music in a really clear way.”

Frank Cox-O’Connell on stage in the Red Barn at The Eddie Hotel and Farm. He is the director, creator and performer in The Shape of Home.

The result is rousing musical production that shows the life of Al Purdy from a 17-year-old Depression- era kid who decides to ride the rails from his home in Trenton out to Vancouver, to his undistinguished career in the Canadian Air Force, to writing bad poetry Montreal— where drunken parties were the norm— to finally finding his voice with Eurithe in their Aframe in Ameliasburgh, and in the end confronting his own mortality. The play is performed by five musicians who each play the part of Al Purdy or of Eurithe. It opens with an acapella number by Cox-O’Donnell and fellow performers Hailey Gillis, Beau Dixon, Raha Javanfar and Andrew Penner, before Dixon brings his guitar and a glass of beer to the microphone and launches into a rock anthem using Purdy’s words. The song cycle follows Purdy’s life and incorporates his poetry. There’s a graphic description of his work in a factory that makes dried animal blood fertilizer of living in such poverty that fresh roadkill would be the only option for dinner, of moving to Prince Edward County where “words have the taste of apples”, and of building the A-frame— “a ragged cobweb against the sky”—on the shore of a teacup of a lake.

The music really does bring the words of Al Purdy to the language of the everyman. It is an energetic and entertaining ramble through the poet’s life. The musical talent on stage is evidenced by the variety of instruments in use, including drums, guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and even a sousaphone, not to mention the vocal talents.

With a body of 33 books of poetry and several novels, it would have been quite the task to winnow it down to a select few. Fortunately, the cast was given a longlist of poems by resident Purdy expert Marni Jackson. With that base to work with, the musicians delved further in, finding poetry that touched upon the events they wanted to include in the play, such as how Al met Eurithe. “This is in no way a complete work, but is a little humble journey through his life and work,” said Cox-O’Connell. The group project started in spring 2021, with each person working on their own in a time of Covid protocols, and it wasn’t until three weeks ago that the cast actually met and rehearsed together. “That feeling of being alone and being a little bit stuck and not being able to reach your friends was something that Al wrote about a lot. In many ways he secluded himself in what at the time was a fairly remote location, compared to the party life in Montreal, where he was living with other poets. That feeling of being alone in our rooms, trying to make this show, in some ways paralleled the journey that Al went through on finding his own voice,” said Cox- O’Connell. “We think of the songs as the heart of the piece, so I think the show feels like a kind of a wake in the shape of a rock show. It’s got a rock and roll set list, but also the structure of a classical musical as well.” He added that the venue of the Red Barn at The Eddie really lends itself to the performance and to Purdy’s work. “He saw the natural beauty and took that in as a part of life. And from this stage it is present right here—all we have to do is just look outside.” The Shape of Home runs until July 31. For tickets or more information, please visit festivalplayers.ca