BY NORMA JEAN MACPHEE
Ever wonder why we go to the movies and the theatre? Why we stay up to all hours devouring novels or binging on Netflix? Is it that we crave the secrets of how others maneuver through life’s challenges, celebrations, decisions and transitions? To watch or read a reflection of life through other characters? Or, do we just want a total escape from our own world for a hour or two?
Perhaps, it’s a mixture of those desires. If so, you’re in luck this month as the latest Boardmore Theatre Playhouse production, Lauchie, Liza and Rory, serves up all those elements.
Lauchie, Liza and Rory is a play steeped in Cape Breton humour and complexities. Written by Sheldon Currie and adapted for the stage with Mary Colin Chisholm, this tale will make you laugh, amidst obligations of religion, family and the heart. As with Currie’s other works, including The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum, The Company Store and Down the Coaltown Road, Lauchie, Liza and Rory depicts a mining family living in both sides of a company house.
“It’s very funny and sad at the same time, which most of my stuff is like,” chuckles Currie over the phone from his home outside of Antigonish.
“It’s a Cape Breton story – it represents two main communities Scottish and Italian,” says Currie, who grew up in Reserve Mines, just down the road from Dominion where many Italian families lived.
Lauchie and Rory are identical twins who both work in the pit. When Liza enters the picture, their lives are irrevocably transformed.
Currie first published the tale as a short story in the Antigonish Review more than twenty years ago. He then workshopped the story into play format with folks from Mulgrave Theatre and Mary Colin Chisholm until the resulting play — which runs longer than the original. It was his first crack at writing a play.
“On a Monday they called and told me everything that was wrong with it,” laughs Currie remembering. “They told me not to have too many characters. Then we went back and forth quite a bit over four days until it was playable.”
Mary Colin Chisholm directed its debut in Antigonish decades ago. “She’s a genius of a director,” says Currie.
They play has travelled across Canada and to New Zealand. And now is coming back home to a Cape Breton stage.
“He brings the world that we lived in,” says director Todd Hiscock. “Traditional music, the Gaelic, hardworking people, that coal mining mentality built into the religion — it’s all there and it’s really neat.”
Actors Bryan Nash and Emma Francis bring to life eight characters during this delightful tale. Both developed their acting chops on the Boardmore stage. Recent credits for Francis include Dracula, Shakespeare’s Dog and Oliver. For Nash, Charlotte’s Web, The Outsiders and Machinal.
“I think for here it’s a universal story,” says Nash who plays Lauchie and Rory, along with several other characters, “that everyone can get a good laugh out of.”
Francis plays Liza, Anne and also a handful of other characters. She’s never been in a comedy before and says she’s excited to share this story with the community.
“The audience will recognize these characters for sure — they know these characters,” says Francis. “They have gotten themselves into relationships that maybe they shouldn’t have done and been stuck with family that maybe they wanted to throw out of the house,” Francis says with a chuckle.
The two actors never leave the stage for the entire play, making seamless transitions from character to character, sometimes back and forth line by line.
That challenge attracted veteran director Hiscock. “How do you make the audience believe and understand that there’s really all these different characters? The idea of the theatricality really intrigued me.”
Nash, who’s been acting for many years, says he’s no stranger to a lot of lines, but the transitions added a new element. “I didn’t realize the mental fortitude it takes to know, okay, what character do I have to become next? What scene is coming up and with which characters?”
“It’s a great lesson for life actually,” Hiscock muses as he thinks about the task involved with switching from character to character on the spot. “Being in that moment and staying there completely before on to the next. Do one thing at a time. It’s the only way it works — in this play and in life.”
“We don’t need to worry about missing cues,” Francis says about the advantage of being on stage for the whole play. “You just have to file it correctly — that I’m not that person, I’m now that person. Try not to let the colours bleed too much,” says Francis. “The characters are really clear in the play — they have distinct personalities — so it’ll be clear.”
During the play you’ll witness the two actors portray four people playing cards, a mother speak from beyond the grave through a picture frame and see a coat transform into a carefree, tipsy young woman.
It’s a comedy layered with tough decisions. And that’s what Hiscock hopes theatre goers will take away. “It’s a complicated story, not just a simple little unrequited love story.”
Hiscock says he also took into account the time of year when selecting this play to run in January. “We want to lighten things up for people to have a fun night of entertainment. Not only is it superb local content, but it’s quite funny, too.”
Although written decades ago, Francis says the story still rings true.
“This experience is baked into our heritage,” says Francis. “Even if it’s not something that we can necessarily touch on a personal level, it’s kind of a collective memory.”
Lauchie, Liza and Rory opens Tuesday, January 21st at 7pm and runs evenings all that week, ending on Sunday the 26th with a 2pm matinee. For tickets call 902-563-1652.
