Actor Sarah Finn checks a man’s pulse as a paramedic in a rehearsal for the upcoming play ‘Disaster.’
"What are you afraid of?”
That is the tagline of a new theatrical production that explores the omnipresent culture of fear in our society and its effect on people’s psyche.
The play is set to premiere in Ottawa this month on the stage of the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama in Westboro.
David O’Meara, the writer of Disaster, says his idea started with a simple image: a middle-aged woman standing in the centre of the stage among shattered glass, suffering from a massive head wound, and looking disoriented.
This is also the play’s opening scene.
“What I was trying to do is explore the more general fear in society that seems to have been magnified in the last decade or so, particularly after 9/11,” O’Meara said. “The fear is embodied in the characters themselves and also in the situation they’re in.”
Disaster presents a psychological probe of its characters, triggered by the incident introduced at the beginning of the play, which O’Meara did not want to reveal.
This is O’Meara’s first professionally produced play. An award-winning poet, he works part-time as a bartender at The Manx Pub on Elgin Street, where he also runs a reading series.
There have been many books published recently dealing with the topic of fear, some of which helped him develop the initial image he had, said O’Meara.
The play has only three characters and the set is very simple. But the script is very complex, according to director John Koensgen.
“You have to justify to the actor what the action is and what they are doing and that’s a challenge sometimes when you have a very theatrical piece such as this,” he said.
The play is produced by New Theatre of Ottawa, a company run by Koensgen, which aims to present plays from the contemporary repertoire.
All aspects of the play are local, including the crewmembers, who have all worked on Ottawa’s stages for years.
Koensgen, who has been acting and directing for 30 years, says the company received a grant from the City of Ottawa that has provided great help in producing the play.
Sarah Finn, one of the actors, plays the role of a paramedic. This prompted O’Meara to get a better insight into that job and make the play more realistic, which is why he sought involvement from the Professional Paramedic Association of Ottawa.
“If a paramedic is sitting in the audience, I wouldn’t want them to think that what they are seeing is not something they would actually do in real life,” he said.
Association president Darryl Wilton and paramedic Suzanne Noel provided Finn and the rest of the crew with technical advice during their free time.
Finn, who graduated from the drama program at Canterbury High School, even joined the two paramedics on rides, sometime during life-threatening calls.
“Our goal was to teach her how to pull off the paramedic skills that were relevant to the play and she was very convincing,” Wilton said. “She’s doing this as an untrained professional while she’s delivering lines.”
During the play, Finn must check vital signs, deal with a head wound and perform an intravenous injection, among other things.
But the trick was not to turn the play into a straight reflection of reality, Wilton explains. He and his colleague always tried to keep artistic aims at the forefront.
“Aspects of reality can be entertaining, but the message itself isn’t that powerful as when the actors are using art in its finest form,” he said.
Wilton says he looked very critically at this play, but emphasized how much he has been moved by it.
“I’ve seen about anything you could imagine in my job, and even things you could never imagine,” he said. “But this play sucked me in so badly, I was just left stunned.”
The other two starring actors are Kate Hurman and Paul Rainville.
Disaster runs from June 17 to 28 at the Natalie Stern Studio of the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama, 294 Picton Ave.
Tickets are $25, but students, seniors and emergency responders receive a discount.