divorce Archives | Research & Innovation

Theatre @ 91��ɫ launches its new season with 'The Provok'd Wife'

fmaquito — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Theatre @ 91��ɫ launches its 2011-2012 season with the world premiere of a new adaptation of John Vanbrugh's English Restoration romp, The Provok’d Wife.

Director Vikki Anderson (left), of Toronto’s DVxT Theatre Company, commissioned playwright and actor Rick Roberts to rework this tragicomic roller coaster ride on the subject of relationships. Witness the rich behaving badly Nov. 6 to 12 in the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre in the Centre for Film & Theatre at 91��ɫ.

Lady Brute, the titular wife, is trapped in a loveless marriage with a beastly, gambling, drunken oaf. Should she leave? Should she take a lover? The sharp wit and farcical situations notwithstanding, the play asks a serious question: What to do about an unsuccessful marriage in a society where divorce is impossible.

Keeping the original 17th-century setting and the language of the day, the adaptation reorganizes some of the play’s structure and adds depth to a number of the characters.

Right: John Vanbrugh

"I chose The Provok’d Wife for the intelligence of Vanbrugh’s writing, his contemporary ideas about marriage and his wonderful parts for women," says Anderson. "Rick Roberts was a natural to approach for this project, as he showed an amazing facility with the language and style of the period in DVxT workshops leading up to this creation.

"Restoration comedies are plays about young people and their problems with love and money as they make their way in the world," she says. "So Theatre @ 91��ɫ is a perfect fit, giving rising young performers the opportunity to bring their energy, vitality and passion to these characters."

An award-winning theatre director, designer and producer, Anderson is the founding artistic director of DVxT Theatre Company. To date, her company has earned 12 Dora Awards and 19 nominations. Anderson’s work for DVxT includes the multi-award-winning production of Ibsen’s A Doll's House, adapted by John Murrell, the acclaimed Soulpepper production of Happy Days starring Martha Burns, and most recently, a site-specific production of The Turn of the Screw at the Campbell House Museum. She is the associate director of The Misanthrope at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival this season.

Anderson directs a lively young cast drawn from the Undergraduate Acting Conservatory in 91��ɫ’s Department of Theatre. A talented creative team of undergraduates is handling all aspects of the production design and execution.

Each year, Theatre @ 91��ɫ mounts a challenging and entertaining slate of plays, featuring some of Canada's most promising performance and production talent. Established in the Department of Theatre at 91��ɫ in 1969, it has been a springboard for a generation of outstanding Canadian theatre artists. Theatre @ 91��ɫ alumni include stage and screen actors Rachel McAdams, Thom Marriott, Tamara Bernier, Patrick Galligan, Melody Johnson, Deborah Hay, Maurice Dean Wint and Christine Horne; playwrights Djanet Sears and Diane Flacks; and directors Richard Rose and Jillian Keiley.

The play previews Nov. 6 and 7 at 7:30pm, opens Nov. 8 and runs until Nov. 12. Performances are 7:30pm nightly, plus matinees Nov. 9 and 11 at 1pm. Tickets are $17, students and seniors $12. Preview tickets are $5.

For tickets, contact the Box Office at 416-736-5888.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Romanticizing divorce carries high price, says professor emerita

fmaquito — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Long the goal of marriage, "happily ever after" is being reimagined by books and movies as the chief export of divorce, wrote Postmedia News July 12.

A leading Canadian divorce researcher, however, warns that escapism carries a high price, if not for couples who've survived a split than for those teetering on the edge of their vows.

"They may find self-renewal, but it comes at the expense of a lot of suffering," says Anne-Marie Ambert, a retired professor of sociology at 91��ɫ [Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies]. "There's definitely a crop of children who are very, very negatively affected by their parents' divorce."

Ambert's research finds 221 divorces per 100,000 population in Canada, representing a significant decline from 362 in the late 1980s. Nevertheless, roughly two in five marriages dissolve before the 30th anniversary.

"The truth is that only about a third of all divorces are the result of what we'd call 'bad marriages’," says Ambert.

Posted by Arielle Zomer, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Two 91��ɫ professors comment on divorce insurance now being offered in the United States

fmaquito — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:00:00 +0000

, adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, and Anne-Marie Ambert, a retired professor in 91��ɫ's Department of Sociology, both spoke to Postmedia News November 5 about divorce insurance being offered to couples in the United States. The , among other outlets:

Because the “for poorer” part of marriage vows often comes with a nasty split, couples have a new type of contract to consider: divorce insurance.

A scholar at one of Canada’s leading law schools predicts the controversial insurance, recently unveiled in the U.S., will come to be “offered widely” in this country, where nearly two in five marriages — 38 per cent — are dissolved before the 30th wedding anniversary.

. . .

James Morton, adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, predicts we’ll come to see such insurance offered broadly across Canada. He notes that a lump-sum payout upon divorce may make more sense to some people than a pre-nup — or domestic contract, as it’s called here — because judges have “broad discretion to ignore” the latter.

He’s unsure, however, of how well the product will take off.

“It’s important to make sure the insurance is worth it,” says Morton. “If the matter is not contentious and the spouses are pretty well agreed, (divorce) costs should be fairly low — say, in the $5,000 range, all included. But if the matter is contested, costs can be enormous. I’ve seen cases with legal costs exceeding a million dollars.”

Divorce expert Anne-Marie Ambert likewise expects the insurance to breach our borders, partly because of the public perception that marriage is more fragile than ever. But a report she authored last year shows there are only 221 divorces per 100,000 population now, representing a sharp decline from 362 in the late 1980s.

“If you get this (insurance), you’re really stating, ‘We’re not going to make it,’” says Ambert, a retired professor of sociology from 91��ɫ. “And let’s keep in mind that the insurance companies aren’t doing us a charity ... This really isn’t going to help those who need it most, which are poor people, or even plain middle-class people who can’t afford it either.”

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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