All the world may be a stage but, as Megan Murphy and Kate Suhr discovered over the course of 2020, a porch will do just fine in a pandemic pinch.
Murphy and Suhr are now taking that up a huge notch, including with musician Saskia Tomkins, by presenting the world premiere of The Verandah Society In Residence for two weeks in August at 4th Line Theatre’s Winslow Farm near Millbrook.
Created and performed by the duo, and featuring a hybrid of storytelling and music, the production is an extension of The Veranda Café show that the pair initially brought to people’s porches and backyards throughout the summer of 2020, as pandemic restrictions continued to darken local live performance venues.
Dramaturged by veteran actress Linda Kash and directed by 4th Line Theatre managing artistic director Kim Blackwell, this version of their uplifting and thought-provoking piece will also feature the talents of multi-instrumentalist Saskia Tomkins, whose mastery of the violin, viola, cello, and nyckelharpa has seen her perform as part of numerous theatre and music ensembles on both sides of the Atlantic.
With the themes of family, traditions, and letting go at its centre, The Verandah Society In Residence will see Murphy and Suhr share their personal pandemic experiences while examining loss and hope and how one rebounds. With the show billed as “poignant and funny and fun”, they ask what have we learned during the pandemic and how do we move forward while leaving unnecessary things from our pre-pandemic lives behind.
In Murphy and Suhr, audiences will be treated to the considerable talents of two of the most expressive and accomplished performance artists in the region.
VIDEO: A taste of The Verandah Society In Residence (video by Hannah Abrahamse)
“Last year when everything shut down, as artists we were out of work instantly,” recalls Murphy, a graduate of York University’s Fine Arts program, the Second City Conservatory, and Seneca College’s Documentary Filmmaking Institute. “We both got depressed and watched a lot of Netflix and ate a lot of Miss Vickie’s.”
“We thought, ‘What are we going to do?’ Well, I write stories and Kate writes songs. What if we create something? My Uncle Clare (Galvin) had written a story called The Verandah Society. It was about growing up in the 1930s and how people would sit on their verandahs on summer evenings and share stories. Now this is what was happening in our communities. We were locked down and suddenly we’re meeting on our verandahs and in our driveways. We sat and we talked and we listened to each other.”
With Suhr’s musical contribution, Murphy scripted the initial Verandah Café that was first presented on the porch of a Gilmour Street home in Peterborough. They would go on to perform on more than 120 porches, most in the city and county of Peterborough but a few in Toronto as well.
“It was so emotional — people cried, we cried, and we thought, ‘This is what we were all missing’,” says Murphy, admitting there was a threat that performing the show so many times would take away from any hoped-for spontaneity.
“There’s enough fluidity and movement in it to prevent that,” she says. “We take a lot from the audience. There’s a lot of improv. We get to all the story points, but we talk to you and integrate that, so it’s new every time for us.”
Suhr adds there was “a feeling” they were onto something special right from the get-go.
“There was a shared experience … a moment in time that felt like we were exactly where we were supposed to be and this — being together — is what’s really important,” Suhr says, noting that feeling was cathartic.
“We’re not supposed to be isolated. Being alone is so very, very difficult. It felt like the only thing we could do was to do this, and the only way it could be what it is was by being with each other.”
“I have done shows where there are countless performances of the same thing over and over,” Suhr continues. “You have to find new discoveries. There are new people in that audience that have invited you into their lives and vice versa, and as a performer you feel a different feeling each show. So it has never felt repetitious.”
Key to those 2020 porch presentations, as well as to the broader-scale production at 4th Line Theatre, is the abundant respect and appreciation they have of each other.
“Working with Meg is a dream because we are so like-minded … spiritually and mentally we’re very connected,” says Suhr, who is no stranger to 4th Line Theatre audiences, with her last appearance being in the summer 2019 production of Beau Dixon’s Bloom: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fable.
“Meg is such a beautiful soul. I feel so very lucky to be able to do this with her. We are in the right place at the right time.”
For her part, Murphy says their relationship “is not unlike like a sister-best friend” dynamic, adding “We are aligned with what we want for The Verandah Society, which is really an extension of who we are.”
Despite being in their happy place, the biggest smile at the Winslow Farm belongs to Blackwell, who is thrilled to welcome audiences back to the theatre she has called home for 27 seasons, having directed 25 productions in the process.
“Quite often the large-scale (productions) we do here might not have the detailed work, because we’re looking at the big picture of having 30 people on stage at one time,” says Blackwell, adding “To be able to really dig into the script and into Meg’s stories and into Kate’s songs has been a real gift.”
“The specificity of Meg’s writing is what really attracted me. I can see my family and my life reflected in it. Everybody can. That’s why they’ve been so wildly successful. With all the original music Kate has written for the show, she gets to a deep and emotional place that’s really affecting. We’re moving to the other side of the pandemic and they’re reflecting on that for all of us.”
Blackwell adds “the beautiful strings” contributed by Tomkins “elevates the piece.” Tomkins, not unlike all associated with the production, is grateful to be involved.
“It’s beautiful — it’s so funny and so tender and heartwarming,” says Tomkins, who has gifted her talents to a number of past 4th Line Theatre productions.
“They have a rapport, a connection, that is completely magical,” Tomkins adds, referring to Murphy and Suhr. “It’s still totally fresh every time I see it. My job as a strings player is to find my way through Kate’s songs and support her. We tucked away in a field, and she sang me the songs and I improvised and then gradually formulated my piece.”
Performance dates of The Verandah Society In Residence, sponsored by The Pyle Group Scotia Wealth Management, are Tuesdays to Saturdays from August 17 to 21 and August 24 to 28, with performances beginning at 6 p.m.
Tickets, which are already close to sold out, cost $40 and can be purchased online at www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca, by phone at 705-932-4445, or in person at the 4th Line Theatre’s box office in Millbrook at 4 Tupper Street.
This summer marks the 29th season of 4th Line Theatre, founded in 1992 by creative director Robert Winslow with goal of preserving Canadian cultural heritage through the development and presentation of regionally based and environmentally staged historical drama.
Two productions that were originally scheduled for the 2020 summer season at the 170-year-old Winslow Farm — Alex Poch-Goldin’s The Great Shadow and Maja Ardal’s Wishful Seeing — were postponed due to the pandemic.
The hope was both could be staged this summer, but continuing COVID-19 restrictions made that impossible. Both productions are now scheduled to premiere during 4th Line Theatre’s 2022 summer season.
