Having lost my father when he was only 66, I’ve become a sucker for plays about dead fathers. Radio Silence, from Dawson City, Yukon’s Open Pit Theatre, tells the engaging and wordless story of a bush pilot and his two daughters. Set in the 1920s, we meet the pilot and his young twin daughters Ruth and Poppy. Then he tragically goes down in his plane and we see the daughters grieving at his graveside. We then jump ahead to the daughters as young women, with one of them becoming a bush pilot herself. Her plane crashes, but she survives, and it’s up to her twin to search for her and bring her safely home. In the mix here are a delightful Fox (played by JD Montgrand) who assists in the search, and a magical illuminated caribou that appears every now and then. The play also features an effective set (designed by Wonderhead co-Artistic Director Andrew Phoenix) of craggy snow covered rocks and three projection panels. The projections (designed by T. Erin Gruber) really add to the atmosphere, as do the occasional snippets of radio that tell us about important events (voiced by JD Montgrand and Brenda Barnes). Overall, I found the production to be engaging and ultimately quite moving. The co-written play, by Geneviève Doyon and Jessica Hickman, effectively tells the tale and of course the reunion of the sisters provides the happy ending we all anticipate. Closed June 11th following a sold out run at the Metro Theatre.
Saturday night took me to the final performance of hapax theatre’s latest production, Lay Down All Dogs by local playwright Sarah Danielle Pitman. A juicy slice of Canadian Gothic, the play takes place in a deserted former windmill on the Saskatchewan prairie where sister Haven has been living and caring for her father, who has recently passed away (I can’t seem to get away from the dead father trope!) Her sister Jenna has come home from university to help her, and we immediately see the tension between these two very different siblings. Haven (Keely Teuber) is a dreamer, who wants to build a cloud seeder to bring more rain. Jenna (Sarah Cashin) is the more practical one, which we discover when she tells her sister that she put down the ailing family dog the night before, and has buried it in the garden. Into this dynamic a stranger appears, who claims to be an estate lawyer whose car has broken down. After some conversation, with Haven being particularly suspicious, we discover that the man is in fact their half-brother Brightly (Jared Gowen), born to an unknown second wife of their father’s. He is after the mill, which he wants to turn into a small country inn. The sisters resist and Haven accidentally (on purpose) pummels him with a flashlight. Believing him to be dead, they proceed to bury him out in a field, placing the dog on top. But the burial is not completed when Brightly staggers back into the house. This time Jenna does what is necessary, in their view, and murders him. The play ends with Jenna leaving, heading west or east, whichever way the coin she tosses lands, leaving her sister behind to somehow carry on.
I enjoyed this 1 hour 45 minute play, although found some of the plot a bit hard to swallow. Why would the sisters not check Brightly’s pulse after Haven injures him? What motivates Brightly to be so villainous to his half-siblings? These questions remain unanswered, which is a bit frustrating for an audience. But the show is well cast, with Keeley Teuber offering a well-rounded portrayal of troubled Haven and Sarah Cashin equally effective as Jenna. Their scenes together are some of the strongest in the show, and director Heather Jarvie mines every moment for maximum emotional effect. Jared Gowen does well in his role as the interloping brother, although again, I found his motivations to be less than clear. Another issue I had with the play is one of genre; the audience on Saturday night were laughing quite a lot, so is this a comedy or a drama? It felt to me that the playwright hadn’t made a clear decision in this regard, to the detriment of the play overall. Chad Laidlaw designed lights and sound, both of which were effectively done. There is no set design credit, but the production makes good use of the small stage space in the Paul Phillips Hall on Fernwood Road. Closed June 11th.
hapax theatre is one to keep your eye on, as I also enjoyed their previous production Castle on the Farm, a one-woman play about a young girl whose father is serving time in prison. Written by another local playwright, Alaina Baskerville-Bridges, I found the performance by Rachel Myers, who played multiple roles, to be very strong and the play was again well-directed by Heather Jarvie. It is not easy to make a go of it as a small independent theatre company. Do your part and go out to see their shows. You can find out more on their website http://www.hapaxtheatre.com/