By Shane McNeil
Lunch time just got a lot more entertaining.
The Ottawa Lunchbox Theatre launched its new show Marriage Play on Oct. 25, kicking off its first full season of noon-hour shows.
The idea behind the company was cooked up a year and a half ago by artistic director Patricia Tedford, with the help of her colleague Deborah Smith, to offer people in the downtown core a theatre alternative during the daytime.
It allows people to catch a show and a meal over their lunch-hour.
“How do we get [the public] excited about theatre?” says Tedford. “We get them in on their lunch-hour and try to shake things up in the middle of their day.”
In addition to the performances, the theatre space, known as The Institution, is fully equipped with tables, a menu and a bar.
The company has come a long way from the church basement where it started.
Kevin Orr, the show’s director, says the theatre’s open environment really lends itself to this production, a story about the disintegration of a 30-year marriage.
“We’re not restricting the action to the stage, so when you walk into the middle of it, it’s like you’re in [the couple’s] loft apartment and can’t really get out,” he says.
Tedford says she believes going to the theatre during the day offers people a getaway from their daily lives.
“It’s like when you’re a kid and you go on a class field trip,” she says.
“No one remembers the work and the routine, but everyone remembers that trip to the zoo and getting out of class and that’s when we actually learned something.”
“I think Ottawa desperately needs it because we’re all on this treadmill where it’s nine-to- five, go, go, go, and we never get to take a break,” she adds.
“Now you can take a break. We’re encouraging people to play hooky.”
The play, written by Edward Albee, is a scathing, funny look at the nature of relationships and offers many perspectives for the audience to see on the same conflict.
“It’s called Marriage Play and it’s that word ‘play’ that sticks in my mind,” Orr says.
“Are we just pretending, or playing at marriage for now until we decide ‘let’s stop playing this game and get divorced?’”
“Albee takes a really interesting but twisted look at marriage,” Tedford says.
“It’s dark, but humorous, so he doesn’t lose sight of the lightness in it.”
Orr thinks the play conveys passion on many levels. “There’s the passion of love, and the passion of friendship, but there’s also the passion of nothing,” he says.
“I want the audience to realize they’re in the play and feel almost like they’ve walked in on a rehearsal and if we’re just pretending, or just playing out our whole lives.”
Mary Ellis, who plays the role of Gillian, believes that the company represents hope for the theatre community in Ottawa.
“Any new company is good for this city and especially one like this where the emphasis is more on the actual play than the production values,” Ellis says. “These are parts that actors can really sink their teeth into and it can only do good things.”
The show’s sparse setting, which is essentially an empty stage, adds to the intimacy of the experience.
“We’re trying to do raw theatre where the emphasis is on the actor, and the word and the audience,” Tedford says.
“There’s nowhere for the actors to hide.”
Marriage Play is playing at The Institution on Besserer Street, Nov. 1 to 5.