Review: (Ottawa) Communion

Stephanie MacDonald and Jenny Munday. Photo by Janet MacLellan.

The Beauty of Simplicity
MacIvor conquers at NAC
By Jim Murchison

The play starts in a therapist’s office while it rains. The rain effect is evoked by Ingrid Risk and Leigh Ann Vardy's lighting playing on the backdrop of Victoria Marston's wonderfully minimalist set. The way the light splashes on the frosted backdrop looks a little bit like the aurora borealis. This opening image is a fitting parallel of the way I feel about this Daniel MacIvor play. It is at once simple and direct, yet layered with subtle nuance and profoundly beautiful.

Even the costuming by Janet MacLellan represents two stages of a person's journey. The first time we meet each one of three women they are wearing their appropriate costume: cancer patient for one woman, therapist for another and  religious zealot for the third. The next time we meet them they are basically in their civvies and freer to love, doubt or cry as the case need be.

Review: (Toronto) Was Spring

Caroline Gillis, Clare Coulter, Jessica Moss (photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann)

Poetry, laughter and less

MacIvor's new play doesn't impress

by Beat Rice

It is always interesting to see how a playwright stages one’s own work. Daniel MacIvor directs his own play, Was Spring, at the Tarragon. 

The set, designed and lit by Kimberly Purtell, is a simple small open space with three chairs onstage. The most interesting visual is the tall reflective black wall that is also slightly transparent. It is an apt representation of what the women are going through. The three women attempt to come to terms with a life-changing event of their past. It’s an emotionally complex play that deals with how one views life, and how we approach death. The text is extremely poetic and there are some funny moments.