These days Montreal playwright Steve Galluccio prefers to enjoy life a bit more, rather than deal with constant deadlines. But that doesn’t mean he’s done just yet.
“I would say until 2019, it was one project after another, it never stopped. It was crazy. I’m going to be 63. I’ve slowed down a lot. I’m no longer the hustler I used to be,” Galluccio muses.
“Especially in art, you have to slow down a bit and enjoy life. Art imitates life. So if you don’t experience life, there is nothing to write about.”
“Age just changes you. Age is a wonderful thing. All of a sudden, things you thought were important aren’t. Tragedy does that too. Having said that, being back in theatre is exciting. Being back at the Centaur is exciting,” he continues.
At the Beginning of Time is Galluccio’s twelfth and most autobiographical play.
“Five years ago, my first husband Yves fell on the ice and had to have hip surgery, at which time they discovered that he had early stages of Alzheimer’s. The operation fast-forwarded his Alzheimer’s. This play deals with that. The Yves character is never seen, but he is always there in the background. It’s the story of me and Yves. It’s literally my life.”
When Yves was placed in a CHSLD – a centre in Quebec’s publicly funded residential and long-term care system – Galluccio found himself back in the closet.
“Here was I was with Yves and not everyone knew our relationship. And so it had to come out.”
“More than anything, watching someone you love dying from Alzheimer’s… It’s just the most horrible thing you can go through. That person is sort of dead even though he’s still alive. You’re no longer living together, so you’re sort of separated. You move on with your own life even though this person you love is still alive… so there’s all the guilt from that.”
Set in a hospital room, At the Beginning of Time is a story about love and loss, about being gay in Montreal in the 1970s and about aging.
“As an older gay man, you are confronted with a lot of stuff you didn’t think you would be. But ultimately, this play is a celebration of life. Life forces you to constantly start over, even if you don’t want to go on that journey. That is the beauty of life. We want it to be a walk in the park, but it’s not. It’s more a walk in a minefield,” Galluccio comments.
“When I write a play, I just sit down and write. It’s not like when I’m asked to write a movie or television script. While I’m writing a play, if I lose interest, then I stop. If I’m excited to see what is happening with the characters, then I want to finish the play,” he continues.
“This was the play I needed to write.”
Galluccio’s first play, My Mom Was on the Radio, premiered at the Quebec Drama Festival in 1990. Since then, he has gone to write a number of hit plays, including Mambo Italiano, In Piazza San Domenico and The St. Leonard Chronicles. Mambo Italiano would later be adapted for the big screen. Other film and TV credits include Surviving My Mother, Ciao Bella, Funkytown (starring Patrick Huard) and Little Italy (starring Hayden Christensen and Emma Roberts).
Running from February 21 to March 12, 2023 at Centaur Theatre in Montreal, At the Beginning of Time is directed by Peter Hinton-Davis and features Richard Jutras, Stephen Lawson, Michael Miranda, and Nadia Verrucci. For tickets, please visit centaurtheatre.com.
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