SIA by Matthew MacKenzie, directed by Philip McKee (Pyretic Productions). At St. Vladimir’s Theatre (620 Spadina). July 1 at 8:15 pm, July 3 at 9:45 pm, July 4 at 1:45 pm, July 6 at 10:45 pm, July 7 at 2:30 pm, July 8 and 10 at 3:30 pm. See listing.
The best of intentions can’t prepare you for possible nightmare situations.[rssbreak]
Take Nicholas Summers, the 20-something Canadian in Matthew MacKenzie’s Sia who volunteers in a refugee settlement in Ghana during the 90s Liberian civil war. Taken hostage by Abraham, a Liberian man he befriends, Nicholas quickly moves from idealism to desperation when he’s used as a pawn to stop a war crimes trial.
But he’s not the only idealist in the play. Sia, Abraham’s 11-year-old sister, offers the dynamic Jajube Mandiela another young role in a roster of plays that includes the award-winning Greenland and Binti’s Journey.
“Sia’s determined and obstinate, an optimist who believes what she reads in books: that nations should be run fairly and that people can get along with each other,” offers Mandiela with one of her megawatt smiles.
“But over the course of the play she realizes that the positive ideas she has aren’t always put into practice. That’s why her brother coaches her on how to speak to the UN peace monitors, hoping to end the violence in her country.”
Mandiela was initially attracted to the script’s directness. Written by recent National Theatre School grad MacKenzie, the production also features other NTS alumni, actors Thomas Olajide and Brendan McMurtry-Howlett (…and stockings for the ladies, The Overwhelming) and director Philip McKee.
“It’s rare to get a script that’s both so detailed and so conversational,” she says. “It doesn’t feel like any word is extraneous or wasted.”
Mandiela’s jumping back and forth between projects this summer. In addition to performing in Sia, she’s taping her ongoing role as Chantay on Degrassi: The Next Generation and preparing to tackle a new job as director of Tanya Pillay’s All Of Him in SummerWorks.
“Whatever work I do in theatre or TV, it’s all about telling the story. That’s the most important thing.”
