MacIvor's Folk
by Jim Murchison
How It Works is a very honest look at how we work our way through life and its problems. The stage floor is a blueprint for how the set pieces move about to create the various environments where the characters dwell throughout the period of the play, complete with opposing arrows indicating where the audience and actors position themselves in the theatre. Designer\director Stewart Matthews has the cast spinning about walls and doorways creating apartments, bars, theatres or police stations as required.
How It Works is a very honest look at how we work our way through life and its problems. The stage floor is a blueprint for how the set pieces move about to create the various environments where the characters dwell throughout the period of the play, complete with opposing arrows indicating where the audience and actors position themselves in the theatre. Designer\director Stewart Matthews has the cast spinning about walls and doorways creating apartments, bars, theatres or police stations as required.
Playwright Daniel MacIvor has set the play in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and his storytelling reflects the natural ease with which Maritimers can spin a yarn. Michelle LeBlanc introduces us to the play and its theme right at the start leaving no doubt in our minds that the "it" that the title refers to is life. She performs with an easy-going rural charm that belies the underlying wisdom that endures when you pare things down to their simplest components. Shortly thereafter we are introduced to her character Christine through that comical and awkward device; the first date.
