Marion Bridge is a small rural community in the regional municipality of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia – and it’s also the title of a play by noted Canadian wordsmith Daniel MacIvor.
In the play Marion Bridge, the community is where three women in their 30s come “home” to be with their mother, who is in the latter stages of terminal cancer.
But the show is not as grim as that might sound, as audiences will discover in Peninsula Productions staged reading, May 22 to May 25 at its Centennial Park studio theatre (14600 North Bluff Rd.).
Directed by Kathleen Duborg, Marion Bridge is both a comedy and a deeply moving theatre piece, which Nova Scotia-raised playwright MacIvor has taken care to infuse with all of the edgy humour typical of the region.
It’s also a showcase for the actors playing the sisters, for whom MacIvor has crafted three diverse, quirky and resonant characters to work with.
Agnes (played Alison Wandzura in this production) has been struggling to make a living as an actor in Toronto and leans heavily on alcohol to deal with the stress of the homecoming.
Theresa (Julie Lynn Mortensen, familiar to the Peninsula Productions audience from her funny and touching performance in last year’s hit production of the curling comedy Hurry Hard) is a nun, who has been undergoing a crisis of faith in the New Brunswick farming community in which she lives.
Louise (Grace Evenson), youngest of the three, is depressed and uncommunicative, choosing to live life as an existence dominated by television soap-operas.
Despite their often humorous exchanges, it emerges that all three sisters are dealing with painful loneliness and the sense that nothing in their lives has gone the way they wanted — or what they believed they wanted.
But MacIvor doesn’t leave them that way — in the course of a show that is, ultimately, inspiring and life-affirming, the sisters make the important discovery that their lives are more closely intertwined than they had supposed.
For the current production of Marion Bridge, Duborg is calling on an impressive skill set as an award-winning actor/director with many film and stage roles to her credit — and a background in new play development across the country (her resumé includes a BFA in acting and an MFA in directing, and she is currently an adjunct professor of acting and directing at the University of British Columbia).
“Staged readings can be tricky,” she told Peace Arch News.
“(In theatre) we’re always working towards throwing away the scripts and finding the physical manifestation of the characters and relationships (as we progress) towards an opening night.
“A staged reading is within the middle of that.”
But she said she finds it “illuminating,” however — and a great opportunity to delve into the questions posed by the play, and “expose those parts of the process.”
Marion Bridge has a very personal appeal to her, she admitted.
“I come from a family of all girls - four strong, vocal and deeply intuitive women —and this story resonates so truthfully to these relationships. “Sisters, and I’m sure brothers —- let’s say all siblings — hold the essences of life affected by the changes of time; the reactions of individual choice and how it affects the whole group and how our human frailties are shared.
“The stories of these sisters, their mother and the intersections of their lives, so beautifully achieved by Daniel MacIvor, offer so much to actors and audiences.”
Duborg added that she is very happy with her cast.
“It’s a wonderful group of actors, and I’m excited to be working with them,” she said.
Wanduzra, who has a bachelor’s degree in theatre from the University of Calgary, moved to Vancouver in 2010 to pursue a career in Hollywood North. Since then, she counts herself fortunate to keep busy in the world of film and television, and is delighted to be back on stage in her first production with Peninsula Players.
Mortensen’s theatre credits include: Hurry Hard (Peninsula Productions), Common Grace (Pacific Theatre), Unity 1918 (Alberta Theatre Projects), Love’s Labour’s Lost (The Shakespeare Company), An Inspector Calls (Smoking Gun). Among her screen credits are Drawing Home (MYRA Entertainment), So Help Me Todd (CBS), Deliver by Christmas (Hallmark) Van Helsing, The Babysitter’s Club, and Virgin River (Netflix).
She also teaches acting through the local school she co-founded with her husband, White Rock Actor’s Studio.
Evenson grew up in Quebec and moved to Vancouver during the pandemic with the aim of to study acting at Vancouver Film School. Since graduation, she has auditioned for film and television and starred in independent film projects.
Marion Bridge performances are at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 22 and Friday, May 23; 2 p.m matinees only on Saturday, May 24 and Sunday, May 25.
For tickets, visit showpass.com or peninsulaproductions.org (for more information, call 604-536-8335).
