Music-referencing play all about harmony
Finding power in simplicity, stage production follows the friendship of two women over 20 years
The lengths some actors will go to get into character.
For Sandra Medeiros and Melissa Oei, preparing to do Daniel MacIvor’s A Beautiful View meant going to an indie-rock show in the Downtown Eastside.
“I did not know what to expect,” Medeiros said of seeing Superchunk for the first time.
“It was a valuable experience just to be there, for us to be at a concert together like our characters. It was an extra-bonus that we both enjoyed the music, too.”
The North Carolina band is a touchstone for the two characters in MacIvor’s music-referencing 2006 play. The indie-rock stalwarts just happened to be coming through town at an opportune time, this past February, as the actors were preparing for A Beautiful View.
In the play, the friendship begins not at an indie-rock venue but at an outdoor supplies store. Through monologues and scenes, we follow the friendship between two women, known simply as L and M, over 20 years.
One of the things that Medeiros responded to was the story’s simplicity.
“It wasn’t trying to make a statement, there was nothing political about it. It’s about two people and their love and friendship. It crosses all boundaries,” she says.
Fittingly, Medeiros is mounting A Beautiful View at the suggestion of a friend. Nicole Fairbairn, co-founder of Naked Goddess Productions with Medeiros, recommended it after seeing a production in Toronto. (Fairbairn now lives there, where she produces shows also under the Naked Goddess banner.)
“She thought it was the perfect show for me,” said Medeiros, whose last show with Naked Goddess was a 2016 production of the thriller Wait Until Dark. “She was moved by it, and felt that it reminded her of us.”
To capture the relationship between the two characters, Medeiros knew it was important to find another actor with whom she had chemistry. She had seen co-star Melissa Oei in other shows, and director Tamara McCarthy had worked with the actor before. (Oei’s credits include Pi Theatre’s Long Division in 2017, and Carousel Theatre for Young People productions.)
“The relationship was there for Melissa and I right away,” Medeiros said.
“Since meeting, we’ve had some wonderful talks, and some intimate rehearsals. We got a lot of work done on the script, and got to know each other really well. And that works well for the play.”
When it came to choosing a character, Medeiros followed up on her friend Nicole’s suggestion that she play M.
“A couple of her lines really resonated with me,” she said. “There are definitely parallels with all our lives.”
A theme in the play that some reviewers have cited is the dangers of sexual categorization. L and M never put a label on their friendship.
“It’s there in the words they use, and how they generalize each other in terms of sexuality,” Medeiros said. “But that’s not the focus at all. It’s just these two women who find themselves together. That’s where our focus is, and what I really like about it.”