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Between friends

THE THING BETWEEN US by Alison Lawrence, directed by Aaron Willis, with Randi Helmers, Emily Hurson and Mary Francis Moore. Presented by the mcguffin company at Theatre Passe ­Muraille Backspace (16 Ryerson). Previews Thursday (October 2), opens Friday (October 3) and runs to October 19, Wednesday to Saturday 7:30 pm, matinees Saturday and Sunday (except October 4) 2 pm. $30, srs $25, matinees pwyc, preview $20. 416-504-7529.


The voices and lives of women are central to the work of the mcguffin company, whose latest production, The Thing Between Us, looks at the often troubled relationship between two women over a period of 35 years.

Written by mcguffin’s Alison Lawrence, the production features co-producer Mary Francis Moore, along with Emily Hurson and Randi Helmers.

At its centre are Linda Small (Hurson) and Shannon (Moore), whom Linda’s parents take in when the two are youngsters and Shannon’s mother is euphemistically “resting.” Manipulative, eager for attention and prone to lying, Shannon insinuates herself into her foster family’s life, confusing Linda, the good girl who always wants to do the right thing.

“Though the company has been around for over 15 years, producing shows like bittergirl and The Catering Queen, its focus was reinforced recently when I saw dozens of productions as a Dora Award juror,” recalls Lawrence.

“As an audience member I felt surrounded by women who weren’t seeing their lives onstage. They were the ones buying the tickets, but often not seeing themselves depicted there.

“That realization was a reminder that what I want to write about is women’s relationships with other women. Men are in some of my plays, but women are at the heart of the scripts.”

That’s true in The Thing Between Us, which tackles the thorny question of what binds some people together even when they don’t always get along. How far do compassion and affection take us when we have real problems with those closest to us?

“Alison originally called the play Shannon, but as we talked about it, we realized that it’s Linda who never leaves the stage,” says Moore, a director as well as an actor.

“It’s her memories we’re shown, and she spends the play wondering what kind of relationship she has with Shannon, who remains in Linda’s daily existence and head for decades. She’s why Linda can’t move on in some areas of her life.”

Originally, Moore wasn’t going to play the role, but the two producers realized that the character was difficult to make sympathetic and that Moore could make it work.

“She feels like a culmination of all the characters I’ve ever played,” admits Moore. “It’s terrifying at times, but I’ve come to feel protective and loving of her. I remember when we created bittergirl” (a show about being dumped and getting over it, which Lawrence and Moore wrote and performed with Annabel Fitzsimmons), “director Michael Waller kept telling us to make our stories more extreme, because those far-out things really happen.”

The two artists suggest that everyone has a figure like Shannon in their past, if not their present.

“The play explores what it is that makes us keep going back to those people who do terrible things and drive us crazy,” nods Lawrence. “There has to be an appeal, a charm or something that makes us have them in our lives.”

Moore accounts for Shannon’s deceit and tricks by seeing her as a child who has to deal with horrible things that happened earlier in her life. When we meet her, she’s trying to figure out how to fit into a new family given the tools she has.

“As an adult, she’s still a child she has no survival skills. But I have compassion for her and want to tell her story properly. It would be easy to make her sinister or Machiavellian, but I don’t think that’s the real Shannon.”

Interview Clips

Why Alison Lawrence writes about women’s lives:

Download associated audio clip.

How the script lost a character:

Download associated audio clip.

jonkap@nowtoronto.com

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