Tales of women of courage
Two one-act plays set for Old Sydney Society stage
The summer theatre season concludes with a special one-night only encore performances of two one-act plays by Whitney Pierborn playwright Ken Jessome.
“Margaret Neil James MacNeil: A Love Story” and “Anna Blufarb’s Second World War” are based on oral history accounts of two Cape Breton women’s lives recounted in Ronald Caplan’s book, “Women of Courage: 15 Cape Breton Lives” and adapted for the stage by Jessome.
The plays will be staged at the headquarters of the Old Sydney Society (the former Bank of Montreal building) on the corner of Charlotte and Dorchester streets in Sydney on Friday, Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 each and go on sale this week at the Cape Breton Curiosity Shop on Sydney’s Charlotte Street and at the Old Sydney Society headquarters. They will also be available at the door on the night of the performance.
“Both these women led brave and eventful lives, but very different ones, and both narratives are incredible,” Jessome says about his source material.
“MacNeil’s story is comic, one of rural pragmatism and a marriage of convenience in Gillis Point, eventually leading to romance and true love. Blufarb’s story is tragic and horrifying, she and her family trying to survive in a ghetto in Tarnopol, Poland, under the most evil regime in history.
“In adapting their stories for the stage, I stayed as close to the source material as theatricality would allow,” Jessome notes. “I did some editing and rearranging, and then got out of the way, letting MacNeil and Blufarb speak for themselves.”
MacNeil’s story had previous performances at the McConnell Library in Sydney over a year ago and at this year’s Elizabeth Boardmore One Act Play Festival at Cape Breton University performed by Carol Anne Gillis, where “Anna Blufarb” debuted on the same night with Peigi Jenkins and Sarah Walker in the cast.
“Carol, Peigi and Sarah are not only experienced and talented actors, but smart ones,” Jessome says about his actors. “They know how to inhabit characters and make them come alive.
“Carol tells Margaret’s story and she got the best actress award for it at this year’s Boardmore festival,” Jessome said. “Peigi and Sarah share Blufarb’s story, Peigi playing the older version of Blufarb, Sarah the younger. They don’t interact, since it’s always the same person speaking, yet they play off each other wonderfully. At the festival there was an absolute silence during their performances, as intense audience concentration as I’ve ever seen at a play.
“I can’t say enough about the acting,” the playwright adds. “Carol can absolutely command the stage and her comic timing is perfect. Peigi is understated but able to bring out so many shades of emotion — deep sadness, regret and bitterness, an occasional glimpse of happiness.
“And Sarah, just 18 herself, has an almost uncanny ability to interpret and express the vivacity of a young girl in terrible circumstances.”
Jessome grew up in Whitney Pier, and like his father Leo, worked at the steel plant. Both father and son wrote plays about their experiences at the plant.
Ken Jessome’s plays have won multiple awards at several CBU one-act play festivals and in the mid-1990s he worked with Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. As an investigative journalist, he has written about the mysterious deaths of three young Cape Breton men in New England in 1970, two of whom were his childhood friends.
Jessome on his own initiative organized the re-staging of these two one-acts. He recommends playgoers come early for tickets because they can only bring the plays back for one night due to other cast commitments including Walker’s departure for university the next day.