Cutler takes latest 'Teaching' play to Wildside

He is Dr. Keir, the hapless Shakespearean lecturer who has been entertaining audiences in classroom-theatres across the country for nearly a decade now, a mainstay at annual Fringe Festivals in several cities and probably the best-known of Keir Cutler's ever-expanding gallery of eccentric monologue characters.

Westmounters will have a chance to see the local writer/actor portraying Dr. Keir in the latest installment of Cutler's 'Teaching' trilogy — 'Teaching As You Like It' — at the Centaur's 11th annual Wildside Theatre Festival in January.

Yes, this time the wild-eyed professor is focusing on teaching the one play, but instead of a university setting, the character's fortunes have been reduced to the point where he is lucky to have secured a substitute teaching gig at a high school. Now he has much more on his mind than making tenure and perfecting the rhythmic flow of "To be or not to be!"

In 'Teaching As You Like It', the character is now "besieged by rumours he's erotically involved with a student," as Cutler himself describes it. "It's Shakespeare’s romantic comedy As You Like It juxtaposed with a twisted modern-day liaison."

Of course you know this can only lead to a place Dr. Keir does not want to go.

Directed by TJ Dawe, 'Teaching As You Like It' follows 'Teaching Shakespeare' (1999) and 'Teaching Detroit' (2001) in the Dr. Keir trilogy. The three comedies are all presented in a classroom format, with Cutler as the teacher and the audience as the students who, as each play progresses, are probably thinking more about tuition refunds than what the teacher is saying.

• Keir Cutler's 'Teaching As You Like It' will be presented at the Centaur Theatre, 453 St. Francois Xavier St. in Old Montreal on Jan. 9 at 9 p.m., Jan. 12 at 7 p.m., Jan. 13 at 3 p.m., Jan. 16 at 7 p.m. and Jan. 19 at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students, seniors and Centaur subscribers. A festival pass for five shows is $40. For more information, contact the box office at 514-288-3161 or visit www.centaurtheatre.com. Keir Cutler's website is at www.keircutler.com.