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Peace Arch News
Friday, January 24, 2020 A19
arts & entertainment …on the Semiahmoo Peninsula One-woman play traces friendship of disillusioned teen and feisty senior
Show celebrates books and cultural bonds Alex Browne Staff reporter
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eninsula Productions co-founder Wendy Bollard keeps her principal residence in London – where she is busy these days pursuing a career as a theatre director and international theatre coach. But that doesn’t preclude return trips to the Vancouver area – and the Semiahmoo Peninsula in particular. “I’m splitting my time between the two,” she said during a recent conversation about the play Spine, which she is directing for the aptly-named Backbone Theatre Collective. Spine plays at 8 p.m. tonight and tomorrow (Jan. 24-25) at Peninsula Productions’ intimate black box theatre in Centennial Park – following which it will move to Vancouver’s cozy Havana Theatre (at Havana on Commercial Drive) for a brief Jan. 29-Feb. 8 run. “I’m absolutely loving living in London, but I’m happy to be here right now enjoying time with friends and family,” Bollard said. An extended visit over Christmas and into the new year provided Bollard an opportunity to finally get to grips with the long-delayed Spine project with actor Kate Besworth, she added. Besworth, who has emerged as a star performer for Bard on the Beach in recent seasons (this year she will be tackling the title role in a bold, gender-crossing version of Henry V for director Lois Anderson, and Titania in an early-Industrial Revolution-set A Midsummer Night’s Dream for director Scott Bellis), was Bollard’s first choice for the one-woman show. Kate Besworth gives voice to the unlikely friendship of 19- year-old Amy and octogenarian Glenda in Backbone Theatre Collective’s Spine. (Contributed photo) “We’ve been talking about doing Spine “I saw a student production of this in together for a long time, but it’s always been taking all these books, because she knows discuss the themes. 2015, way out in East London, featuring one the library is going to be closed down,” a problem of working out schedules,” said And one of the most important of these, of the students at the theatre school I was Bollard, who added she met Besworth while Bollard said, adding that the books are she said, is the potential for pan-generational symbolic – on a broader scale – of teaching at. working on a production of The respect in our society at a time when “I just loved it and when I came back services once provided and now Merchant of Venice at Bard several generational divides often seem to be actively to Vancouver and was working with Bard denied. seasons ago. encouraged. The ‘mischievous activist’ inside on the Beach I thought of Kate for it. She “It’s taken us since 2016 to fit it in, “If this play were to have any legs beyond makes big, bold choices and fully commits to the current run, I’d like to see nights when Glenda sees, in young Amy, a to find the right time for both of us. whatever she’s working on. I gave her a script older and younger people come together to kindred spirit – someone she can Fortunately, it came together for us mentor and to whom she can pass and she loved it, too.” to do it now.” see it,” Bollard said. Depicting a 19-year-old and a senior in on a legacy of intellectual rebellion Clara Brennan’s play – a hit during Because books are a big part of the play, her 80s at the same time might seem like against the socio-political status runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and she notes, it’s only appropriate that designer quite a challenge for any actor, but there’s quo. London’s Soho Theatre – concerns Ariel Slack has created a set for the show an advantage in that it’s not exactly a double that is intended to function as an active Since its 2012 debut, Spine the bond that develops between Wendy Bollard role, Bollard notes. has won critical raves in Britain Amy, a wise-cracking, disillusioned lending library. director “Kate is good at playing younger parts – – including descriptions of the teenager living in London, and the “Feel free to bring a book, or take a book, she tends to get cast young a lot,” Bollard play ranging from “heartfelt and feisty Glenda, who Amy meets when or both to this production,” the most recent said. she arrives on the senior’s doorstep to view a life-affirming” to “a vibrant celebration of promo for the play states. “But when she speaks as Glenda she’s not language and female strength.” room for rent. The Peninsula Productions theatre is really being this little old lady – she’s Amy A big part of the charm of the one-act Unlikely as it may seem at first glance, located at 14600 North Bluff Rd., (in being Glenda; she doesn’t have to be perfect. Centennial Park, adjacent to Centennial script is that it’s written as Amy’s own their connection is sustained by a mutual What we do get to see is Amy’s love of disdain for authority and a love of literature account of the friendship – by turns both Arena). Tickets for the White Rock run ($25) humorous and deeply touching, Bollard said. Glenda as somebody who changed her life.” are available through brownpapertickets. – particularly a haul of books Glenda has As the play is not very long (“it’ll probably com; tickets at Havana (1212 Commercial “It’s a really beautiful play… a dramatic decided to ‘save’ from a local library about come in at 60 to 65 minutes,” Bollard monologue, but also a comedy monologue, to be axed by politically-mandated, but Dr., Vancouver) are $20 – with two for one said), there will likely be talk-back sessions because there are brilliantly funny parts as culturally-damaging, budget cuts. shows Jan. 29 and Feb. 1 – from showpass. scheduled following each performance to well,” she said. “She’s going to the library and basically com