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It’ll be curtains up for Marshlight Theatre Company once again this Friday, as the local troupe is set to tackle some heavy topics in a production of the 2015 play Late Company.
Written by Canadian playwright Jordan Tannahill, the play takes place around the dinner table of Deborah and Michael Shaun-Hastings a year after the suicide of their son Joel as they host their son’s bully and his parents.
It’s a play that hits close to home for director Jay Whitehead, who grew up queer in Alberta in the ’80s and ’90s.
“It contains themes that I personally find important and that, you know, motivate me artistically and professionally as well as personally. It contains themes of bullying, of queerness, of youth, of family, of loss. Very human emotions.”
Whitehead, who teaches at Mount Allison University and is the JEA Crake Fellow in Drama, wants the audience to come ready to sit with those emotions and reflect on them, as these characters reckon with Joel’s death from their own points of view.
“I think that every character has something to say that I think will resonate with at least a few folks in the audience every night,” he said.
The play stars Laura Stinson and Andrew Ennals as Joel’s parents Deborah and Michael, Malcolm Denby as the bully Curtis, and Maya Noëlle and Craig Farrish as his parents Tamara and Bill.
Whitehead said this is his first time directing community theatre and he has nothing but praise for his cast and crew, who he treated as he would any group of professionals he has worked with in the past.
“ They’re doing a lot of beautiful work,” he said. “I think that the community is going to be really moved by what they see and by the heart that all of these artists and community members have put into this project.”
This won’t be the first time Whitehead will tackle the material. In the year of its release, he played one of the parents in a production at Theatre Outré, a queer theatre group he co-founded in Lethbridge, Alberta.
In the decade since, Whitehead says he began to wonder about his relevancy and place as a queer artist when it seemed the community was gaining broader acceptance and felt almost as if they had arrived.
“And, you know, we’re seeing a moment in history where we seem to be moving backwards in that regard.”
For this and other reasons, he still thinks the decade-old play feels urgent and necessary.
“I think it contains themes and ideas that are very relevant to our times, and I think that whatever your point of view or thoughts are around the issues brought up in the play, that I think you’ll find that there are no pat answers and that it will really generate more discussion than resolution.”
The play runs this weekend and next, with 7:30 p.m. shows February 27, 28 and March 6 and 7, along with 2 p.m. matinees on February 28, March 1, 7 and 8.
Tickets cost $25 for general admission or $15 for students. They are available for purchase online.
