VANESSA PORTEOUS
Vanessa Porteous, the outgoing artistic director of Alberta Theatre Projects, has been itching to direct one of Joan MacLeod’s plays for years. After plans to take on the acclaimed playwright’s last work fell through due to a maternity leave, she finally has the chance with Gracie, the story of a young girl growing up in the polygamous religious community of Bountiful, B.C.—and as she tells
Peter Hemminger, it was worth the wait.
This is the fourth of MacLeod’s plays to premiere at ATP. What makes her work
such a good fit? What I think is so fantastic about her plays is just that the people in them seem to be so real. They’re just like us. They’re quite ordinary people, usually, not famous people or powerful people. And as they tell us their stories, the details of their lives, the specifics start to weave a bit of a spell on us, and the next thing you know, you’re completely on board with them. You love them, you want them to be happy, you want them to succeed.
How do you balance that love for the characters with being critical of
their situation? Well, Joan’s goal isn’t necessarily to be critical... I don’t know what someone who comes from Bountiful would think, but it’s not a piece of propaganda against the people or their faith at all. It’s like a keyhole into the world of that community. And it’s a play that looks at the ties that we have with our family, and the pressures that we put on each other to conform, even beyond the questions of polygamy and child marriage and everything. I think we all feel the tug between who we’re meant to be ourselves, and who our community and our family want us to be.
Even still, ordinary is a funny word to use for someone in Gracie’s situation. You sort of forget that it’s the weirdest setup on Earth. Because what she talks about is getting up early and helping her mom with the baby, or wading in the river in the summer when it’s hot, or riding her bike. And then also in the middle of it, the outside world and how they don’t understand them. So it’s a mix of really familiar things and very foreign, exotic things to us, to people living in ordinary Canada. But on the other hand, all around the world, there are so many situations where young girls are being basically raised and bred to serve the values of their community, with no regard to what those girls might need. It’s not just Bountiful, B.C. where that’s happening. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.