Reinforcing that there really is no place like home, the Peterborough Theatre Guild returns to very familiar ground this Friday (March 8) for its staging of Willow Quartet — the fifth presentation of the company’s six-play 2023-24 playbill.
In February, Showplace in downtown Peterborough was home away from home for the company as it presented a very successful run of the popular musical Fiddler On The Roof. Now it’s back to The Guild Hall on Rogers Street for Canadian playwright Joan Burrows’ drama about choices, consequences, and forgiveness.
“Doing a dramatic play after a musical is always a challenge because the musicals are always better known (to audiences),” assesses director Tami Whitley, acknowledging Willow Quartet is a more challenging box office sell in that sense.
“But this play has real touching human qualities to it,” Whitley adds. “You can relate to every character on that stage. You’ve got the jilted ex who isn’t happy with his situation and kind of wants to get back together with his estranged wife. You’ve got the new person who’s walked into this landmine situation completely unaware, and has to navigate the ins and outs of the various relationships.”
“Then you have a concerned mother who’s trying to do what’s best for her daughter — her grown daughter — and is having a frustrating time doing that. And then you’ve got the woman who is trying desperately to get through life day to day. There’s something we can all relate to in each of these characters.”
Burrows’ play tells the story of Kim (Tristina Haines) who, estranged from her husband Ben (David Adams) after a family tragedy three years earlier, seeks solace by moving back to her childhood rural farm home owned by her mother Marjorie (Laine Williams). She subsequently invites Jim (Peter Cain), a violinist in town for an arts festival, to stay at the farmhouse.
Much to the chagrin of both her mother and her estranged husband, Kim becomes infatuated with Jim, who helps her forget the tragedy that ended her marriage until her grief inevitably boils to the surface. With Jim at her side and under the watchful eye of Marjorie and Ben, Kim — who is continually haunted by the voice that comes from her favourite willow tree — struggles through her unresolved grief and eventually begins to explore her buried feelings.
“It’s a very uplifting story but it’s definitely a tragedy,” assesses Whitley, adding that “a strong cast” is especially key with such a small onstage ensemble.
“I especially want to give props to Peter (Cain), who stepped in as our musician (Jim). Halfway through the process, our previous actor backed out. Peter stepped up and it’s like he has been there from the beginning.”
“David (Adams), who is playing the estranged husband (Ben), is rock solid. I have learned so much watching him over the last few months. He has some of the most emotionally wrenching scenes and I’m practically in tears watching him.”
“Tristina (Haines), who plays our lead Kim, (has) got pages and pages of monologue but she has picked it up and gone with it, carrying it like it is so natural coming from her. And Laine (Williams) is doing a tremendous job (as Majorie), beautifully balancing snark and bite with care and softness.”
Based in Richmond Hill, playwright Burrows was an English and dramatic arts teacher with the York Region District School Board for 29 years. When her first play, 2004’s Staff Room, won two Association of Community Theatres Central Ontario awards, she retired and began her second career as a playwright.
Willow Quartet, meanwhile, won The Playwrights of Spring Award in 2009 and was work shopped at Theatre Aurora before premiering as a full production in 2011 at Papermill Theatre in Todmorden Mills in Toronto. Nine years later, it was reworked into a musical version and was nominated for the Tom Hendry Award.
A member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, Burrows other plays include The Photograph, Four Hours, and Gloria’s Guy.
As for the Peterborough Theatre Guild’s production of Willow Quartet, it marks Whitley’s second turn as director of a Guild production. In October 2022, she directed Terry Gabbard’s one-act play Our Place.
“That was an extremely different experience,” she recalls of her directorial debut. “There were 14 actors and five individual scenes as opposed to one cohesive story. They all related to each other but they were snapshots of different people’s lives. But dealing with 14 actors in five-minute snippets versus directing four actors over two hours and 15 minutes is a bit different.”
“The camaraderie that’s developed between the four of them is something,” says Whitley of the Willow Quartet cast. “They get along and they talk to each other — ‘I don’t think we should be doing it this way. I don’t like this. This makes me uncomfortable.’ They work it out.”
“They say to me ‘We have a problem with this and this is what we thought. Could we try this?’ I’ll either say yes or no, and we’ll go ahead with things. They’re very respectful of me, and of each other, and of our stage manager (Hayley Griffin Montgomery). It’s wonderful to work with them.”
As for what she hopes audiences take away from Willow Quartet, Whitley says it’s her hope “they understand you can get through anything with time, patience, support and love. That’s the ultimate message, I think,” adding “It’s very emotional. We’ve had to have Kleenex on each side of the stage for the actors.”
Now, with final rehearsals underway, she says the week before opening has a well-deserved name.
“We call it Hell Week,” she explains. “You’re getting all of your tech in place. Every time something changes, you stop, you start, you stop, you start. Hell Week is a well-earned moniker. On Friday night, just before we open, I will be as excited as a kid on Christmas morning, no doubt. But up until then, we’ll have our noses to the grindstone, making everything come together.”
“This is actually a festival entry this year,” Whitley adds, referring to the annual spring festival of the Eastern Ontario Drama League (EODL). “We’re getting adjudicated on March 23rd, which is our closing night. Don’t believe for a second that hasn’t cost me some sleep.”
“There’s quite a bit of prestige of saying ‘I worked with the Peterborough Theatre Guild’ and knowing, in EODL circles, that people will recognize that name and say ‘Oh wow, that’s quality stuff’, that puts more pressure on me to put forward a good product. Of course, I want to do that regardless but I’m feeling more pressure because we’re getting adjudicated.”
When all is said and done, Whitley says Willow Quartet checks all the boxes that an emotion-evoking production should check.
“This is a wonderful show about family. It’s going to take you to the place that theatre is supposed to take you — to a new experience that’s a little bit out of your comfort zone, but not so much that you’re traumatized by it. It’s really just a great show.”
Willow Quartet runs at the Guild Hall at 364 Rogers Street in Peterborough’s East City for nine performances from March 8 to 23, with 7:30 p.m. evening performances on March 8 and 9, 14 to 16, and 22 and 23, and 2 p.m. matinee performances on March 10 and 17.
Tickets are $30 for adults, $27 for seniors, and $20 for students and are available by calling 705-745-4211 or online at www.peterboroughtheatreguild.com. The Peterborough Theatre Guild is offering a two-for-one ticket special for opening weekend (March 8 to 10) by using the promo code “Willow” online during checkout.
kawarthaNOW is a proud media sponsor of the Peterborough Theatre Guild’s 2023-24 season.
