OUR LADY OF SPILLS by Edwige Jean-Pierre, directed by Rhoma Spencer (Theatre Archipelago). At Papermill Theatre (67 Pottery). To May 10. Pwyc-$25. theatrearchipelago.ca. See Continuing. Rating: NNN
There’s no final knockout in Our Lady Of Spills, but the boxing ring set suggests that its two characters, Lillian, a nursing home resident, and Sandrine, a nurse in the facility, are in a battle that neither’s ready to give up.
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At first the pair in Edwige Jean-Pierre’s play seems easily defined: a prejudiced elderly white woman who won’t have anything to do with someone who isn’t “Canadian” and a black Haitian nurse who’s devoted to her Christianity.
But Jean-Pierre, who plays Sandrine opposite Lorna Wilson’s Lillian, gives a richness to their interaction. Each has a litany of anger and hurt to share, if only with the audience, and they duke it out to the end of the play. The playwright has cleverly interwoven their monologues so that themes and images extend from one speech to the next, and the careful writing shows small parallels and contrasts between the two.
Under Rhoma Spencer’s direction, Jean-Pierre has an engaging comic style that lets Sandrine ride over the little hurts she receives. Wilson doesn’t make Lillian a two-dimensional racist instead, she fleshes out the character’s narrow-mindedness so we understand why she’s become a nasty, lonely senior who ostracizes anyone who offers friendship.
Jean-Pierre has intentionally underwritten Sandrine, but I’d like to know more about her and her motivations.
