Pearle Harbour stars in Kat Sandler's Retreat
27 Feb 2019.

by Drew Rowsome -

The legendary Pearle Harbour is force of nature whether teaching Sunday School or saving souls in a Chautauqua tent. She is as formidable offstage and, having survived a previous interview with the inimitable diva, I was looking forward to another in order to promote her starring role in Retreat. Alas our schedules were not meshing and Pearle graciously awakened early to call me shortly after I arrived home from a gruelling overnight shift at the day job. Nothing is as bracing as Pearle's dulcet tones in the morning. Or before bedtime. Or when those two time frames are in tandem.

Pearle Harbour: Oh thank god it's you. I actually just dialed another number that was actually wrong. And instead of the other person being like 'Oh, I'm sorry you have the wrong number, I'm going to help you as a fellow human,' they just hung up. 'Is Drew available?' and just click. What's this world coming to?

Drew Rowsome: Well we're talking now so we're all set. This is very exciting, I'm a big fan of playwright Kat Sandler [Bang Bang, Mustard, Late Night, Bright Lights, Liver, Cockfight, Sucker, Delicacy, Rock] and of course a big Pearle Harbour fan so this is going to be a very interesting production.

Pearle Harbour: Thank you very much. I'm a big fan of yours as well. And frankly a big fan of mine too.

What can you tell me about your character Candace Matchwick?

Pearle Harbour: Candace Matchwick is the ultimate camp counselor. She's going to be able to teach you how to tie a slip knot, a bow line. She's going to keep you safe from predators out in the wilderness. She'll share her moonshine with you. She's the type of gal who if you were in a plane crash she would lead the survivors to civilization with as little cannibalism as possible.

The director Claire Burns [I Cook He Does the Dishes, The Baby] says in her notes that she immediately thought of casting you because you and Candace are a lot alike.

Pearle Harbour: Well, yes, I think we're both very capable people who are perhaps a little misunderstood and perhaps our strings are strung a little more tightly than everyone else's but that's just because we have so much to give to the world and so much to teach. We're both very much natural leaders. Sometimes that doesn't necessarily turn out best for the people we're leading but good goddamit we're going to try our best anyway.

Had you seen Retreat before?

Pearle Harbour: I actually did. I was fortunate enough to take in the play in its original run at the Storefront Theatre with the originator of this role, the comic genius and a dear friend of mine, Kat Letwin. It's actually quite funny because at the same time that Retreat was getting started, so was I in this city. Kat Letwin was a frequent guest in the first Pearle Harbour shows when we used to have them at Video Fag. So this is really a snake eating its tail kind of beautiful symmetry of the universe moment.

As an established star who usually creates her own shows is it difficult to submit to the will of a director and a script?

Pearle Harbour: I am more than happy to submit to Claire Burns. She is a formidable and fabulous director. What's interesting about this situation, I have been in other productions, other plays, I was in a version of Die Fledermaus, an immersive version that Opera 5 had done a few years back, but they let me rewrite all my own lines. In this situation it's not something I would want to do because Kat has such an intense percussive rhythm that's all designed. But I can tell you that the indulgence of being the playwright and performer, meaning that everything I say is the play, well, it's been a bit of an adjustment to get back to proper acting and memorization.

You have your own distinctive sense of style and costume designer Ming Wong has done a lot of opera and shows at Hart House. How fabulously is she going to dress you?

Pearle Harbour: Think Edith Head does Mountain Equipment Co-op. What's really fortunate is that Ming, as well as the whole production team, has kind of conveniently taken my aesthetic sense as visual inspiration. So you find this very literal campy camp infused with a lot of the old-timey toxic nostalgia kick that I bring to all of my looks. So frankly when this play ends, I'm going to be stuffing my pockets with everything I can and try to walk off because the design is so up my alley.

The poster features an axe embedded in a suitcase and the show is about millenials competing for a job. I unfortunately didn't see the first production of Retreat but there is a fight director listed in the credits.

Pearle Harbour: Oh yes, the brilliant Louisa Zhu.

Does that mean Pearle is getting down and dirty?

Pearle Harbour: Down and dirtier than perhaps you've ever seen me. You can always expect a certain amount of mayhem and gore in a Kat Sandler play and let us just say that we do not disappoint in that regard. It's a competitive job market out there and in Retreat things do get literally cutthroat.

It's also a 90 minute show which is really fast. Which is actually good because Hart House, as beautiful a theatre as it is, there is no air in it.

Pearle Harbour: Yes, especially when I get into that room. I tend to suck the air out of any room I'm in. Retreat does run like clockwork. It's almost like a fabulous Rube Goldberg machine with all of these moving parts. Each of these interns are vying, competing, trying different tactics. They are double, triple, quadruple agents sort of twisting back and forth on each other. So there are a lot of moving parts but it does have this relentless, frenetic pace that just drives and drives and drives and every time you think you might get a gasp of fresh air we just take you deeper in the mayhem. I'm not a fan of intermissions in general. I feel like it gives an audience to click out of everything that we've already been building up so I"m a really a let's go full tilt and get it all out there gal.

The characters are all listed by a name and also by an animal-derived name.

Pearle Harbour: Those are the spirit animal names that Candace Matchwick bestows upon them after seeing the inside of their sticky souls.

How does bestowing spirit animal names fit in with Pearle's spiritual mission?

Pearle Harbour: I would say that Pearle' spiritual mission of theatre as community building opportunities, this one's a little different than that. Just because the drama is more onstage than it is out with the audience, as I typically throw it out there. But, I think it's an incisive look at the relentless competition that we've allowed ourselves to be convinced that we're in all the time with each other. You know, you pull up your Instagram and you see that oh, I would have expected that this picture would be trending better by now. And why is this queen trending more? What are they doing that I'm not doing? We very much live in a society that has all these little rewards and incentives to think that we're all in it for ourselves all the time. You always have to be pushing others, competitors, to the side. Retreat takes this feeling, and this anxiety, linking it to our soon to be very unstable job market - it's already pretty dire, and let's be honest things are only going to get worse from here - and takes it to its logical conclusion. If we've always been told that we're competing against each other by the people who control the levers of power behind the scenes and we fully embody that and believe it's true, who knows what horror we might unleash on each other? I think it's got really valuable lessons about it. There's always the chance to teach by the negative which, when some of the vile consequences spill out onstage, I think this play teaches in spades.

So we can expect Shakespearean violence and gore?

Pearle Harbour: Oh absolutely. Now there are no children in pies, which is the high water mark for Shakespearean violence, but we get pretty damn close.

Will it be a challenge to be on a proscenium stage as opposed to mingling with, working with the audience, as is your wont?

Pearle Harbour: Fortunately I'm working with a beautiful and brilliant cast. You have Sebastian Biasucci, Tony Tran, Terri Pimblett and Brittany Clough. Fabulously energetic young actors who are giving it with gusto. So even though I do miss reaching out to the people from time to time, I also have my co-stars alongside me who will give me everything I need to get through it. And frankly I am a sort of altering vehicle, you can put me in any orientation and I'll get you there.

The first time I saw Pearle, you were teaching Sunday school. To then move to spirit animals, I wonder if this is the zeitgeist, one earth, or are Pearle's values shifting?

Pearle Harbour: I'm growing as best I can, as we all are. I don't think my values have shifted much but when I see opportunity, I'm going to take it. So in this case I'm going to pounce on this delicious role and gobble up all the scenery I can. I think that's pretty consistent for me.

I will be there opening night. Thanks for taking the time to talk and my apologies for the early hour.

Pearle Harbour: No, no. My apologies for the late hour. Well darling, sleep well. Dream only of me. And if that means you have to change the sheets, that's okay too.