MORE FINE GIRLS by Jennifer Brewin, Leah Cherniak, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Alisa Palmer and Martha Ross, directed by Palmer, with Severn Thompson, MacDonald and Ross (Theatre Columbus/Tarragon, 30 Bridgman). Now in previews, opens March 11 and runs to April 3, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinees Saturday and Sunday 2:30 pm. $10-$46. 416-531-1827. See listing.
Reunions are meant to be happy occasions. But the gathering of the Fine sisters is a more tortured affair.
You might remember the trio of sibs – professor Jojo, Bay Street workaholic and closeted lesbian Jayne and conceptual artist Jelly – from their first outing, The Attic, The Pearls And 3 Fine Girls, an award-winning 1995 show by Theatre Columbus.
Actors Leah Cherniak, Ann-Marie MacDonald and Martha Ross, director Alisa Palmer and Jennifer Brewin have reassembled to look at the tempestuous family nearly two decades later. Due to personal reasons, Cherniak has just been replaced by actor Severn Thompson.
A mix of clown-inspired work looking at family stresses and personal traumas, Attic literally took the threesome to the top floor of their house, where a blowup soon after their father’s death led to Jelly throwing the other two out of the house.
“Even with that climax, the characters had an optimism that was echoed in the ascension to the attic,” recalls Brewin, who inherited the reins of Theatre Columbus from Cherniak and Ross. “They were all in the early phase of their respective careers, working hard and good at what they did.”
In the intervening years, life has disappointed at least two of the three, though they won’t admit it.
“Now, 20 years later, they find themselves in the basement of the house, dredging up secrets that turn out to be mysterious and frightening.”
Coincidentally, the collective creation’s two-year development process was initially just as inexplicable for the team.
“It took a year of workshopping to realize that the three had to go down rather than up,” nods Brewin ruefully.
“Part of what informs the path of the show is that we’re all around the 50s mark in our lives some have crossed that milestone, some are approaching it. What we’re playing with, in part, isn’t a fear of mortality, but rather a fear of letting go of all those wondrously dysfunctional things we hold onto for some sort of comfort.”
The audience can see the other four artists’ contribution to the show, but not Brewin’s. How would she define her job?
“I guess I’d call myself a facilitator,” she responds, “keeping everyone working in a non-hierarchical process. In most theatre productions, someone is in charge of shaping the results, and everyone involved recognizes who that person is.
“Here, it’s an open process, and I find myself managing the artists’ different ways of working and helping them communicate with each other. The result, we hope, is finding common ground without choosing the easiest idea.”
She smiles with what’s probably a memory of some wrangling within the company.
“One of my jobs, and something I encourage, is finding room for conflicts to be fully explored – conflicts involving both the company and the characters – and seeing what’s behind them.
“The big fear in a collective creation is having a work that speaks only in a homogenized voice. No one aims for that, but sometimes everyone gets tired and opts for it.”
Instead, the five women in the room were determined to see how each individual style of creating could feed the growing story.
“Sure, sharing these different approaches is hard, but we went into More Fine Girls knowing that. We wanted to shake up how we work on our own, to be influenced by other artists and other ways of working.”
jonkap@nowtoronto.com
