Lakeshore Players deliver Rough Justice
Rough Justice is theatre designed to trigger a debate about the nature of justice and the myriad elements at play when we make the decisions we make.
Lakeshore Players Dorval closes the season with an eight-performance run of the Terence Frisby play, at Lakeside Academy in Lachine, beginning Thursday.
Frisby is best known for There’s A Girl in My Soup, the longestrunning comedy in London’s West End. (It ran from 1966 to 1973.) Rough Justice is the polar opposite of Frisby’s famous comedy. Froth and fun is replaced by a courtroom tale about man on trial for killing his infant son.
Directed by Carolyn Fe, the drama focuses on the trial of James Highwood (played by Jeremy Glenn), the host of a television show about crime and justice. He is accused of smothering his severely disabled infant son with a pillow and now it’s up to judge and jury to rule whether it was done out of despair or selfish cruelty.
Gwyn Beaver plays prosecuting counsel Margaret Casely. Beaver came to Montreal from Texas in 2004. She is a professional opera singer who also collaborates with jazz singers and has performed with the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir. She also has appeared in community theatre productions and was looking for an opportunity to get back into the scene after a 14 year absence.
“I read Rough Justice and said ‘wow,’ ” Beaver said. “It’s controversial. It deals with issues like euthanasia and infanticide. It forces people to ask questions. And I fell in love with my character. She is conservative in her beliefs, but she doesn’t let them get in the way of her being a truth seeker.”
During the trial, the judge learns that Highwood and his wife — who lived the life of a celebrity couple — kept their baby’s disability secret.
The play is known for a pivotal scene involving the prosecuting counsel’s carefully paced, methodical grilling of Highwood, which reaches an emotional intensity so great, that she breaks him. But is he guilty of a heinous crime?
Beaver’s years of opera experience have supplied her with the technique she needs to slowly build that scene to its climax.
“Opera has helped me with stamina,” Beaver said. “And it has helped me with projection and with intonation — how to say something to convey the moment.”
And Beaver and cast mates have something else that helps with their endurance.
“Sugar,” Beaver said with a laugh. “We have what we call ‘Cake Sunday’ and ‘Cookie Thursday.’ We expend so much physical and emotional energy in rehearsal, we need that sugar kick. With a work like this, you can’t help but create a bond with your cast mates.”
The play also demands participation from the audience, so pay attention.
Lakeshore Players Dorval presents Rough Justice at Lakeside Academy, 5050 Sherbrooke St. in Lachine, May 10-12 and May 17-19 at 8 p.m. and May 13, 19 at 2 p.m. Tickets range from $20 to $26 and are available at the box office, 514-631-8718 and online, www. lakeshoreplayersdorval.com.