About the Play:

The Hats of Mr. Zenobe is a full-length tragicomedy by Robert Astle with Jim Jackson and Agnes Limbos. Based the true-life biography of Vahan Poladian, a displaced Armenian who lost his family during the Turkish invasion, The Hats of Mr. Zenobe is a poignant indictment of war.

In this play for a solo performer, Mr. Zenobe uses a remarkable succession of hats – from a bizarre military helmet to a miner's helmet with lamp – to tell his heart-wrenching story of exile, conscription, internment, and dispossession. The Hats of Mr. Zenobe takes its inspiration from the remarkable life and creations of Vahan Poladian, an exiled Armenian, who spent the last thirty years of his life building his amazing phantasmagoria of hats, costumes, pipes, and canes and twice daily marching through the streets, reminding his ad hoc audiences of all of the indiscretions of the twentieth century, always with the "hope to change the world with laughter."

The Hats of Mr. Zenobe premiered in 1997 at Theatre Network in Edmonton, Alberta, and has played in Montreal, Victoria, Colorado Springs, Whitehorse, Calgary, Kelowna, and the Factory Theatre main space in Toronto, where it garnered four Dora Award nominations.

Cast: 1 male

What people say:

"The Hats of Mr. Zenobe is not so much about tragedy, as it is about the power of the human creative mind....something that empowers in a world that was, for Poladian, and even for us now, seems to drag us along with it despite our best efforts." — Vue Weekly

"In an amazing succession of hats – which substitute for his squashed fedora, a bizarre military helmet, a dictaphone through which man may speak to God, a miner's helmet with lamp, and many others – Mr. Zenobe's own heart-wrenching story of exile, conscription, internment, and dispossession unfolds. What we see is the transmutation of politics into agit-prop headgear and tragedy into entertainment. It's a surprising, inventive, hat-felt piece of work from one of our original artists." — The Edmonton Journal

About the Playwright:

Robert Astle is a Canadian writer, director and teacher. He worked for 25 years in professional theatre in Canada, and toured his acclaimed one-man-shows around the globe. He taught for nine years in the playwrights' unit at the National Theatre School of Canada, (Canada's Julliard) and was an adjunct professor in the Theatre Department of Concordia University. He presently lives in New York.