"I'll try and be as honest as I can."
In February 2005, Layne Coleman approached me to dramaturg and direct a piece he had recently composed. Layne was interested in exploring whether the text, written as a stream-of-conscious internal monologue, could become theatre.
Layne's story is a strikingly honest account of the way women – and one woman in particular – have changed him throughout his life. The major dramaturgical thrust of the piece details the battle fought by he and his late wife, Carole, against abdominal cancer. Layne explores a trip that he and Carole took to Tijuana, Mexico, in order to attend a diet-based health clinic. However, the piece does not have a straight dramaturgical through-line. At almost every corner of his present-day, Mexico-bound experience, the character actively recalls a past event that helped create the middle-aged man he became.
It was in these early discussions that Layne and I began to hatch the idea of creating a one-person show from this text – using a woman to play the middle aged man. I felt that an important step to theatricalising the text would be to make the female – and therefore Carole – the central subject of the piece. We cast wonderful Ieva Lucs, who worked with me to translate the piece onto the stage.
Layne's script was nominated for a 2009 Dora Nomination: Best New Play.
Cast: Ieva Lucs
Lighting Designer: Jason Hand
Sound Designer: Michael Laird
Stage Manager: Kinnon Elliott
Assistant Director: Julia Lederer
3/4 stars
The Globe and Mail
NOW Magazine NNNN
Torontoist.com
Toronto Sun
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Photography by Scarlet O'Neill
Photograph on this page by Martha Haldenby
