Farce based on casual racism is a big-hearted achievement
Prairie Nurse
(out of 4) By Marie Beath Badian, directed by Sue Miner. Until May 13 at Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst St. factorytheatre.ca or 416-504-9971
Originally produced by the Blyth Festival in 2013, Mary Beath Badian’s Prairie Nurse is a farce with a difference.
Physical shtick, heightened characterization and a misunderstanding that spins out of control are all on the menu here, but the twist comes in the subject matter. Based on the real-life experience of Badian’s mother, the play charts the adventures of two Filipino nurses who arrive to work at a hospital in a remote corner of Saskatchewan, circa 1969.
What Badian has concocted, against the comedic odds, is a mistaken-identity story based on casual racism. Most of the daffy white employees of the hospital can’t tell Puring (Belinda Corpuz) and Penny (Isabel Kanaan) apart. The temporal distance between then and now, and the big-hearted nature of Badian’s approach allow this to work as a comic premise.
The action starts with the candy striper Patsy (Janelle Hanna) and uptight matron Marie Anne (Catherine Fitch) hanging up a banner that says “Mabuhay Nurses!” greeting the newcomers in their native language.
Marie Anne struggles as she practises their full names (Purificacion and Indepencia), but the pronunciation comes naturally to Patsy, presaging the ongoing comic trope that Patsy has no trouble discerning their individuality, unlike most of her older colleagues and the dopey lab tech/hockey star Wilf (Matt Shaw), who becomes the fulcrum of the play’s romantic shenanigans.
The characters are all generous and pretty harmless, and they’re trying to find their way through the experience of difference while frequently (and sometimes literally) falling on their faces in trying to do so. A comic highlight of the I-can’tbelieve-they-go-there variety is Marie Anne’s conversation with Dr. Miles (Mark Crawford) about the system she derives to tell the two nurses apart.
Badian doesn’t idealize her central characters, either: part of the joke is that the women who are supposedly so alike are strangers to each other before they arrive and very different personality types. Kanaan’s Penny oozes princessy entitlement while Corpuz’s Puring is sweet and devout, and some of the more interesting parts of the play to me are the details we learn about their contrasting back stories and circumstances.
Under Sue Miner’s direction, the other two female performers give performances of skilled physical and vocal stylization. As Patsy, Hanna is frequently on her tiptoes with hands clenched in front of her, about to explode with excitement about the matchmaker role she’s playing, while Fitch’s stiff back, pursed mouth and tense little steps that go nowhere encapsulate Marie Anne’s frustrations.
Layne Coleman’s presence as the simple, decent caretaker Charlie allows for some grounded moments amid the froth, most memorably in a quiet scene over a shared orange with Penny in which we see a softer side of her personality, too.
Coming full circle back to its summer theatre roots, this coproduction with the Thousand Islands Playhouse will play in Gananoque in August-September. That it will likely feel at home in the context of a summer rep as it does as part of Nina Lee Aquino’s intercultural programming at Factory is what makes it such a unique achievement in playwriting.