Daniel MacIvor’s new play New Magic Valley Fun Town opened last night at the Neptune Scotiabank Studio and runs until April 21st. The play tells the story of Dougie (MacIvor), who is awaiting the arrival of his childhood friend, Allen (Andrew Moodie), and during their visit secrets are revealed that have the power to really shock the audience. I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with the cast at Neptune during a Media Call on Thursday.
Stephanie MacDonald plays Sandy and Caroline Gillis plays her mother, Cheryl, and both are careful in the ways they discuss the trajectory of the play because both feel very strongly that it is best experienced when the audience goes in not knowing anything about it.
“I think there’s time spent trying to figure out what the dynamic is in this family,” says Gillis, “Who are they to each other. How do they get along? We talked a lot about secrets in rehearsal with Richard Rose, our director. It seems like this play, on some level, is about keeping secrets, and what we keep to protect ourselves, or to protect others, and how those secrets may come out, and a play is a good platform for that.” “Even in Winnipeg,” adds MacDonald, “my first entrance, I could hear someone in the audience go, ‘Oh, that’s her sister, Brenda.’ This play doesn’t spoon feed you things, so you really have to go, ‘Oh, okay, we are seeing people…’ and it’s not overwritten, or beaten over the head, like, ‘Here’s my daughter, Sandy!’ You really have to figure it out- and then you can hear pennies drop, especially in the second scene when Allen does arrive, you can hear people go, ‘Oh! That’s how they know each other! Oh! That’s the relationship!’” “This play in particular,” says Gillis, “I think it is really both joyous and shocking to see without knowing anything. Which, I think that’s all why we’re being vague about it, because we want audiences to have that enjoyment and that surprise. The play takes turns that I think people don’t expect and I think Daniel wrote it specifically for that. And he is at the top of his game with this play.” “It’s really lovely writing,” MacDonald agrees, “What I loved is the united front of [theatre critics] writing about it going, ‘You have to be in the space to experience it.’ You could feel the audience coming in with that mystery. You could feel the audience go, especially in Toronto, ‘Okay, what’s this going to be?’ and then they’re completely like, “Oh My God!’ I think it’s really awesome that [the critics] came together and were like, ‘we’re not going to give you the easy answers, the book report, if you want to experience it, it’s from this time to this time on this date. Come and have a communal thing happen.’ I thought it was amazing they did that and that they didn’t give [too much of the plot] away.” “There’s nothing more joyous as an actor, well laughter’s fun, but there’s nothing more joyous than when you hear someone go-“ Gillis gasps, “you hear the verbalized sound of surprise, it’s really, really satisfying.” “Because you feel as a performer that you’re free falling into this thing, and the audience doesn’t know it yet. They don’t know what’s coming at them, so you can just live in the moment… that is amazing,” says MacDonald. “It’s a beautiful feeling,” adds Gillis.
MacDonald and Gillis have both acted in a number of MacIvor’s plays, but this is MacDonald’s first time acting alongside MacIvor in a play, and it’s been a long time since Gillis and MacIvor have shared the stage together as well, “Often in the last ten or fifteen years I’ve been in his shows where he has directed and written them, so this is the first time we’re acting together in awhile,” says Gillis, “Actually, I think one of the last times we acted together was in Oleanna here at Neptune, when the Studio used to be at the Dunn Theatre. When there was no Studio here. We acted together in a play of his called The Soldier Dreams… I don’t think we spoke on stage. I don’t think our characters interacted. We haven’t acted together a lot, so it’s pretty joyous to do that. It’s fun to pick up on our personal rhythms, and also, another surprise to me, I’m like, ‘Oh, these are two people that are Cape Bretoners, which is why we know them, but we also know them because parts of them ARE us. …Oh right, we DO interact this way. We might use different words, but we do interact this way sometimes.” “We are like all these different facets of [Daniel’s] personality swirling around him. It’s amazing,” says MacDonald.
The characters in New Magic Valley Fun Town were written specifically for MacDonald, Gillis and Moodie. “I think that’s why he likes writing characters specifically for people too,” says Gillis, “He loves incorporating whatever unique traits that person that he knows has, the quality that they can bring to it.” Gillis says she has seen MacIvor change lines of published works to better suit a new actor playing the role. “The person matters to him,” she says, “Bringing yourself to it is important to him.” “He’s very good when you’re on stage and sometimes it’s hard to get a certain wording and if you’re really struggling he will say, ‘No, change it. Whatever you’re saying is better,’” says MacDonald, “He’s so not precious about it because he’s always listening. You feel like you want to get it right. There’s a certain type of rigour, especially when you are saying the words that the playwright wrote into his direct ear balls, you just want to be like, ‘Okay. I hope this is coming through’ and, with Richard Rose, he’s so detailed. You can’t get lost in the musicality of Cape Breton because as a director, from the outside, he says, “I don’t really hear it.” That was excellent for us, breaking these lines apart, thinking ‘right, everything has to have subtext, you don’t get away with just sending it up and having no motor underneath it. That’s a really great insight from someone who isn’t from here who is listening to it.” “He helped us find a depth of performance that you needed that outside ear for,” says Gillis.
MacIvor has also known Andrew Moodie for quite a long time in the theatre community in Toronto. “Andrew worked with a playwright named James O’Reilly, and Caroline worked with him a couple times, and Andrew and Caroline were in a play together, that’s how I got to know Andrew,” MacIvor explains. “And I would go see every one of [Daniel’s] shows,” says Moodie. “We were all in the same circle of people coming up, Andrew is also a playwright, and so I was like, ‘Okay, I need a charming, handsome, black guy… Andrew Moodie.’ ‘And Kevin Hanchard wasn’t available, nor was Jeremiah Sparks, neither was Beau Dixon… so finally at the end of the list…” jokes Moodie. “Andrew Moodie,” MacIvor insists, “I like having history with people. It’s nice. Andrew and Caroline had their first stage kiss together. It means something. History is important. I love the fact that there’s a connection beyond just this production.” “Yes. I like to do that too,” says Moodie, “It’s like, Audrey Dwyer, Assistant Director of this show, I also did one of her shows, but we also have known each other for YEARS. I went to see her in a Fringe Show back in the day. Theatre is like a family. More so than film. Film is not like a family at all-” “It’s a party in a hotel room or something,” adds MacIvor. “Yeah, and you get kicked out eventually,” adds Moodie.
Moodie, who is from Ottawa, had a play of his, Riot, at the Neptune Studio Theatre in 1998. “That was my first experience in Halifax. It’s a great theatre town. The audiences here are fantastic and I’ve been blessed to work here at the Neptune, and I think this is a great show and I think people are really going to appreciate the story.” “It feels like we’ve been headed here. Don’t you think?” says MacIvor. “Oh, yeah. Yeah,” Moodie agrees.
New Magic Valley Fun Town started in Winnipeg at Prairie Theatre Exchange and then played at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre before making its way to Neptune’s Studio. “Starting in Winnipeg, working in Winnipeg, we were in kind of a vacuum- you knew quite a few people there”, MacIvor says to Moodie, “but still. We were pretty much on our own, and it was really fucking cold. It was like being in a strange other world. Making it there, we felt very isolated, and that was good. Then, going to Toronto was kind of like going home. Toronto is partly my home. It’s Andrew’s home, it’s Caroline’s home. But now it feels like this is the home of the play. We’re kind of landing with it. This has been the journey we’ve been on the whole time.”
MacDonald and Gillis were surprised what a warm and receptive response the play has gotten so far, especially in Toronto. “This play is not the newest, coolest thing,” explains MacDonald, “we are going in there boldly with a kitchen sink drama about Maritimers. For me, I love the play so much, and I’m thinking, hopefully they will feel the love, but you never know. It did incredible there, it did incredibly in Winnipeg too, but Toronto really surprised me.” “Toronto was even more kind of raucous audiences,” agrees Gillis, “It does kind of scrap people’s preconceived notions about what a ‘Maritime Play’ is. There are themes that really speak to everybody.” “Daniel is so good at putting people on stage that you see and then you go, ‘Oh god, I recognize that behaviour. Oh, that’s uncomfortable.’ He’s so good at doing that. It’s not polished in any way, and [the characters] are annoying, and sometimes weird, and they have their things,” says MacDonald. “I think that’s the sign of a good writer,” says Gillis, “Everyone in the audience sees something of themselves in it. And then when you’re acting in the plays too, sometimes, you are like, ‘Oh! I didn’t know I had so much in common with this character.” Daniel’s plays are a little different, I’ve done so many of them, as has Stephanie, and I’m amazingly grateful and privileged to have stuff written for me. And still, you’re still surprised. Even when the part is written for you, you’re like, ‘oh, but this part’s not like me.’ And then you’re like, ‘Oh. But it is.’ He’s a great observer of human nature, and he knows how to translate that to the stage, which is a pretty awesome thing to be a part of.”
New Magic Valley Fun Town by Daniel MacIvor plays at Neptune’s Scotiabank Studio Theatre (1593 Argyle Street, Halifax) until April 21, 2019. Performances are Tuesday to Friday at 7:30pm and Saturday and Sunday at 2pm & 7:30pm. For tickets please CLICK HERE or call 902-429-7070 (toll-free 1-800-565-7345) or visit the Box Office at 1593 Argyle Street.
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