Eda Holmes is reaping double the pleasure from directing The Children. The same production by British playwright Lucy Kirkwood is first entertaining Canadian Stage audiences at Toronto’s Berkeley Street Theatre until Oct. 21 then packing its gear for Montreal and the run at Centaur Theatre Nov. 6-25.
The co-production was the suggestion of Matthew Jocelyn who, after proposing it to Holmes, handed the reins of Canadian Stage over to Brendan Healy this past summer. Holmes, the artistic director of Centaur, kept the creative process on an even keel throughout the transition.
The play itself speaks about change. The human effect on the earth, and what people are willing to sacrifice for future generations, is the theme of the story about three retired nuclear scientists.
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“It’s an important question for us right now with climate change. The trio in the play must consider what their responsibility is after a Fukushima-style disaster in a seaside nuclear power plant in England,” says Holmes.
“Two of them are a married couple living in a cottage just outside the area of contamination. The other scientist shows up to encourage them to come join the crews trying to save the reactor.”
Lending a further explosive aspect to the action is that the wife was once romantically involved with the visitor.
“Bernard Shaw once said that any man who is not liberal in his youth has no heart and any man who is not a conservative in his old age has no brain. They’re discovering that shift in their own lives. It’s a vehicle for great acting,” says Holmes who cast Fiona Reid, Laurie Paton and Geordie Johnson in the roles.
The director believes “there will be a different response from younger people than older people. But it’s a way for two generations to talk to one another in a really compelling way.”
Eo Sharp’s set is typical of a naturalistic drama except for one aspect. “It looks like it’s floating on a bed of garbage. The surrounding floor is an amazing, deep acid-green,” says Holmes.
“We imagine this cottage sitting at the bottom of the nuclear reactor in the contaminated pool.”
Holmes switches to the era of Henry VIII next year when she directs Kate Hennig’s political play The Last Wife Feb. 12-March 3. “It’s based on Henry’s last wife Catherine Parr, an exploration of women finding power through the domestic sphere, but it’s a contemporary-historical mash-up so don’t expect to see ruffs and corsets.”
Currently onstage until Oct. 28 is the Canadian premiere Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney who scripted the Oscar-winning movie Moonlight.
Directed by Mike Payette with musical direction by Floyd Ricketts, “it tells the story of a group of young black men in high school, woven together with soul, gospel, and R & B songs,” says Holmes. “It also has a gay theme because the main character is trying to decide how to come out.”
Jan. 8-27 sees True Crime onstage, indie rocker Torquil Campbell’s (of Stars) solo performance involving singing and acting. The plot is how his relationship with an imprisoned con artist prompts him to explore the nature of truth.
In March, Morris Panych directs his play The Shoplifters with Ellen David heading the comedic cast and April sees Centaur audiences going on a Blind Date with Rebecca Northan’s clown.
The plays of last season, set by the previous artistic director Roy Surette, were Holmes’s initial roster at the helm of Centaur. This is her first self-programmed series. It also happens to be Centaur’s golden anniversary. “I chose plays that would speak across the whole demographic of Montreal,” she says. “I wanted to put stories onstage that invite people from all walks of life into the theatre to exchange their views.”
For full information, go to centaurtheatre.com.
