By Nathan Wilson
Emotional breakdowns, writing, spirituality, and grief come together to form Bea’s Niece, the Great Canadian Theatre Company’s new play.
“You’ve got your Judaism … spiritualism, psychology, literature, it’s all mixed in there. It’s quite intriguing (without) being beaten over the head with it,” says director Lorne Pardy.
Deep and morose on the surface, Bea’s Niece, written by David Gow, is rather light at times. “He kind of throws (it) out there and lets (them) hang in the air,” says Pardy.
“It sounds like it’s a heavy story, but it isn’t,” says Nancy Beatty who plays Anne Hirsch, the lead. “Some of it’s quite amusing. It’s the dark and the light.”
Anne’s mental degeneration begins with the “complicated” death of her husband. The play then follows her institutionalization in a mental hospital.
Burgundy Code plays Beth, Anne’s psychiatrist, who helps to bring her back to a certain kind of reality.
“A lot of time the psychologist is speaking to Anne’s inner child, trying to encourage her to pass through that,” says Pardy.
Anne’s story is a complicated journey through grief.
“It’s not a very linear play,” said director Lorne Pardy. “It’s not that easy to track the through line.” This, in fact, is what first attracted Beatty to the play.
“It’s a puzzle,” she said referring to how different aspects of the human psyche are explored.
The play also deals with themes of spirituality, particularly Jewish, and writing.
“It’s the spiritual aspect that really underlines the whole play,” Pardy emphasizes. “There’s [also] a real enjoyment of language in this.”
Preparing for the role, Beatty explored literature.
“(Anne’s) a writer (and) I’m certainly not,” she said, explaining The Master of Margarita is one book she read to better understand where Anne is coming from.
Part of Anne’s reluctance to find her way back to reality stems from the fact that she stopped writing in the play.
Pardy hopes the exploration of Anne’s mind will be enjoyable for the audience when it debuts October 17. Bea’s Niece is the GCTC’s second play of the season. It originally passed over Pardy’s desk two years ago. The director, who immediately fell in love with the script, put it off, as that season’s line up contained a similar play.
Sean Fitzpatrick, who oversees GCTC’s marketing, says ticket sales have picked up as word of mouth about the play spreads.
“Last year we had a couple of plays that did phenomenally well,” says Fitzpatrick, who is excited about this season’s line up.
Everything combined, “it should be an enjoyable journey for the audience,” says Pardy.