MacHomer's Miller back with a Hardsell for theatre audiences

Toronto actor-playwright Rick Miller, whose one-man show MacHomer was an international hit, is teasing laughs out of a new target our consumption-crazy world.

His new play, Hardsell, opened in Winnipeg's Manitoba Theatre Centre on Thursday, and once again it's a one-man show in which Miller plays multiple characters.

The rather dark take on consumerism was written with Daniel Brooks, who collaborated with Miller on Bigger Than Jesus, their hit play that won acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and went on to tour North America in 2006.

"Part of the thesis of Hardsell is that everything is for sale," Miller told CBC Radio's Q cultural affairs show on Friday.

Even, Miller admits, the performer-playwright himself he's out there selling himself constantly.

"We are encouraged to be part of the sell, so much so that it seems like fun and games, but there is a dark side a nightmarish side in that there are people in boardrooms, very smart people, trying to get my child to nag more effectively so we can buy her Dora the Explorer that kind of thing."

Miller explores this world by playing several characters including the cynical showman/salesmanArnie and Arnie's uncle, the child psychologist who advises corporations around the world on how to get people to buy more.

"Part of it is this fine line between ticking the audience off and making them uncomfortable and really entertaining them so they tell their friends about Hardsell," Miller said, adding that it took three years to work out a format that he and Brooks were happy with.

The multi-media show makes the most of thepersuasive jingles and sexy pitches that surround us.

Bigger than Jesus and MacHomer, in which herecreates Macbeth with Simpson's characters,also required the Montreal-born, Toronto-based Miller to play multiple roles and used sound and video to enhance the performance.

Miller said he started Hardsell in Winnipeg because the city's theatre audiences are a great test market.

He and Brooks first played Dora award-winner Bigger than Jesus in Winnipeg before going nationwide.

"In a way, it's a focus group the audience is part of the creative process. There are very few theatres in Canada allow that kind of experimentation," he said.

Hardsellruns until Dec. 1 at the Manitoba Theatre Centre warehouse space, then opens at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto in Januaryand will be part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival in Vancouver in June.