The Abominable Showman, April 10, 2014

Remembering Greg Kramer

Friends and colleagues pay tribute to late Canadian theatre legend Greg Kramer

by Richard Burnett (photos from tribute by Richard Burnett)

@bugsburnett

Canadian actor and writer Greg Kramer was found dead in his Montreal apartment a year ago, on April 8, 2013,  after he failed to show up for the first day of rehearsals for his new play, Sherlock Holmes, starring Hollywood actor Jay Baruchel at Montreal’s Segal Centre for the Performing Arts.

The widely-revered Kramer had performed on stages across Canada, from the historic Vancouver Playhouse to the venerable Centaur Theatre in Old Montreal. But Kramer told me that working with Christopher Plummer on The Tempest at Stratford in 2010 ranked up there as one of his favourite jobs. “Plummer is incredible – an unbelievable professional,” Kramer said. “Given his age and how well he has kept himself, he is an inspiration.”

The Abominable Showman, December 4, 2011

Reaching for the stars

Celebrated director, actor and author Greg Kramer – currently co-starring in Oliver! at the National Arts Centre – on being out, challenging himself, and working with living legend Christopher Plummer and Hollywood director Todd Haynes

by Richard Burnett

Greg Kramer calls me during a break from an 11-hour all-day rehearsal for the NAC English Theatre Company’s upcoming production of Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, the musical adaptation of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. “We’ve been rehearsing for four weeks!” Kramer – who knows this musical inside out because he co-starred in a previous production – says not unhappily. “And for a musical that’s good. And this time I play the nice guy [Mr. Brownlow]!”

When it comes to the arts, Kramer knows of what he speaks. The 30-year theatre veteran immigrated to Canada from Britain in 1981 “because of Maggie Thatcher,” he says. “[Funding for] the [Incubus Theatre] company I was with got axed completely after being in existence for 13 years, so I went to Vancouver.”