Hockey at centre stage: Centaur opens season with Theo Fleury story, Playing with Fire

Before you even hear the actor utter a single line, the set for the award-winning productionPlaying with Fire, which launchesthe new seasonat theCentaur Theatre,kind of blows you away.

It's a hockey rinknot made of real icebut a close facsimile,equipped with wooden sideboards, two nets, red and yellow lines, pucks and sticks.

And dressed in a Calgary Flames uniform, warming up by doing laps around the rink in his Bauer skates,isaFleurydoppleganger actorShaun Smyth.

I only got to see one scene, but the promise of excellence is established as soon asSmythstarts his monologue, claiming that he knows why everybody came out to watch him: "To see a sports superstar behaving very, very badly."

He pulls a cigarette and a lighter frominside his glove to accentuate thepoint.

Centaur Theatre has invited the production team of Saskatoon's Persephone Theatre to co-presentthe Quebec premier of Playing With Fire: The TheoFleurystory.

It runs until Oct. 29.

At the forefront of the collective memory of most hockey fans isFleury's traumatic life experience as a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Graham James, his junior coach.

The play,by KirstieMcLellan Day, based onFleury's2009autobiography which she co-wrote with the hockey player,is about more than this sadchapter ofhis life.

"They tell the story through hockey,"explained Centaur's new artistic and executive director,Eda Holmes.

"Shaun, the actor, skates on synthetic ice and relives the despair, the joy, the glory of the whole ofTheo'slife."

"WhatI love, especially as a dancer," Holmes went on"...is that it's this physical desire that's built into anykindof athletic experience. And so you feel that from this performance."

"It's just so physical.It's really exciting."

Set inspired by Fleury's childhood memories

And back to that rink. It almost wasn't going to be the set, when the play was first written and workshopped.

McLellan Dayhad originally set Fleury'sstory in a hotel room.

When director Ron Jenkins got on board, he had another idea.

"In the book, there's this beautiful section of him talkingabout pretending that he was in the NHL, " Jenkins starts off.

"His father used to drive theZamboniin this tiny little rinkand do custodial work. And that's where he skated: he was fiveyears old, and he would go there and skate for hours and hours while his dad cleaned the ice."

"And I went, well, that's where the whole thing should take place, on a rink."

Apparently, the audience often a mix of theatre and hockey fans are transported.

Jenkinsdescribed people shoutingat the actorwhat perhaps they had yelled at the TV during a heated match during the real Fleury's 15-year tenure in the NHL.

Others have given high-fives to the actor.

None of this behaviour equates withyour usual theatre etiquette.

A human story

A true appreciation for TheoFleury'simpact as an athleteseems to be at the centreof the storytelling.

Jenkins said he was a fan,despite being anOilers man, because of Fleury's"tenacity."

ObviouslyMcLellan Dayis a fan, too, to help write his book and then bring his story of resilience to a theatre audience.

The sound composer and designer, Matthew Skopyk,is also ahockey fan, Jenkins said,which made the director's instructions to make the set sound like a hockey rinkeven easier to deliver.

Smyth, based in Calgary,has been performing the production on and off since 2012 and hasracked up prizes and praise for his performance.

He, too, admires Fleury.

"I watched him, as a young man, win the Stanley Cup," he said,smiling at the memory of being on the sidelines of the celebratory parade in downtown Calgary.

"I admired him, his style of play. He brought such a level of excitement to the game, whatever game he was playing."

In terms of playing the 56'' right winger, Smyth says, "It's got everything that an actor would want. It's like what BryanCranston must feel in Breaking Bad:the journey is so extreme,and it's such aroller coaster, from top to bottom."

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Playing With Fireruns until Oct.29 at the Centaur Theatre,453 St-Franois-Xavier Street in Old Montreal.