The past has dreadful manners.
It turns up at weddings, barges into hospital rooms, and insists on discussing things everyone thought had been safely packed away years ago.
That makes it the perfect uninvited guest for Studio Theatre Perth’s When Sparks Fly, an evening of one-act plays including Guy Newsham’s Reception and John Kenny’s Smoke & Mirrors.
In Reception, presented by Theatre Night in Merrickville (TNIM) and directed by Barry Patrick, newlywed Tilly is beginning her married life surrounded by people who have rather mixed reviews of the nuptial institution. Her divorced parents Claire and Jordie are both attending with new partners.
Jordie has brought Britney, a younger woman he met while speed dating. “Britney is heaps of fun, very unpredictable. She’s got a lot of layers that you wouldn’t expect,” says Paige Hurley, Perth resident and newcomer to TNIM, who plays Britney.
Claire has arrived with Ron, an online match with an intense attachment to his dog, Beatrice. It does not take long before old memories, new relationships, and a few glasses from the open bar begin loosening tongues.
This comedy has both teeth and heart.
Director Barry Patrick notes that playwright Guy Newsham excels at mixing “grit, pathos and comedy,” and his staging will include an outdoor-wedding atmosphere, flowers, dancing, and a very real dessert table.
The second half of the evening exchanges champagne glasses for breathing apparatus.
Smoke & Mirrors, directed by Jane Stott, was written by Perth resident John Kenny, a retired firefighter who has turned his first-hand knowledge of the profession into a story about memory, friendship and regret.
Retired firefighter Brent Preston is in hospital with a brain tumour when episodes from his past begin unfolding around him. His former crewmates appear, including Jimmy, a dead friend who seems determined to make Brent confront events neither man can change.
Stott describes the production as almost ghostlike, with the present brightly lit and characters from Brent’s past appearing out of the darkness.
“If you think of A Christmas Carol, when the ghosts come to visit Scrooge, it’s sort of like that,” she describes.
For added authenticity, Stott took the cast to the Perth fire hall, where Chief Trevor Choffe introduced them to the equipment and realities of the job. Rob Millard, who plays Jimmy, found trying on the gear particularly memorable. “I’m 55 and I love playing dress-up with my friends,” he joked, before admitting the weight gave him new respect for firefighters entering burning buildings.
One play asks whether love can survive the years. The other asks whether a man can outrun the choices he made in them.
Either way, sparks fly.
The double bill of one-acts runs October 29 and 30 at 7:30pm and October 31 and November 1 at 2pm at Studio Theatre Perth. Tickets are available online at TicketsPlease.ca or at the door.
Both plays will be travelling to Kanata to participate in the Eastern Ontario Drama League One-Act festival in early November. Come and cheer on your local troupes!
