By Tina Depko
Love, family, highland dancing and a striptease come together in a unique play that will be presented by the Great Canadian Theatre Company.
Kilt, written by Toronto playwright Jonathan Wilson, is about family secrets.
“I hope audiences go home with a reflection on the craziness of their own families,” says GCTC artistic director Lorne Pardy.
Crazy is one word that aptly explains the play, which alternates between the life of Mac, a Second World War soldier in North Africa in 1942, and the life of his grandson, Tom, in contemporary Toronto.
The two characters are tied together by a piece of Scottish attire and a funeral.
The garment is a kilt, which was worn by Mac in the war and now serves as part of Tom’s wardrobe as a gay exotic dancer.
The funeral is Mac’s. As Tom and his conservative mother, Esther, make their way to Scotland for the funeral, family secrets are revealed.
Besides family, love and acceptance also work their way into the play in comic and dramatic moments.
The script for Kilt gained director Michael Shamata’s attention with its original story line.
“When I first read the script, it moved me,” Shamata says. “The play will appeal to anyone with a heart, particularly those who love their families or have been in love with someone of the same or opposite sex.”
Lead actor Darren Hynes, who plays both Mac and Tom, says the play is also about lost souls finding a place in the world.
“Tom is not the ideal son – he is a gay stripper – but he is trying to be accepted and this play is showing the importance of parents accepting children for who they are,” says Hynes.
This is the first time the GCTC has put on a play by Wilson, but after Kilt’s long run in Toronto to sold-out houses, Pardy was convinced that it was a good choice for Ottawa.
“It is a comedy, but the drama sneaks up on you and by Act 2 you care about these five characters so much,” says Shamata.
Kilt also features Jim Bradord and Kate Hurman.
Homosexuality plays an important role in Kilt, and Shamata says the way Wilson worked his way through the issue is one of the play’s best characteristics.
“I have never seen on stage a relationship between a man who is gay and one who is not where there is no guilt or shame.”