FAN SERVICE
Playwright’s work asks whether great artists should be great people
Imagine the thrill of meeting your favourite writer.
Imagine finding out he’s not very nice.
“The playwright calls him curmudgeonly. He’s snarky, sarcastic, grumpy,” says director Pamela Haig Bartley.
The author is played by Rob van Meenen in Live Five’s season-ending play, Willow Road. He’s seriously ill with liver disease. The fan who meets him is also his nurse, played by JennaLee Hyde.
“She has a notion that a great artist should be a great person,” Haig Bartley notes. “Sometimes what makes a great artist is that they have to be selfish, they have to be single-minded and have a singular focus.”
Sharon Bakker plays the writer’s longtime housekeeper. She’s protective of him and sensitive to the challenge to her authority.
Willow Road is a new play but it already has a long history. Wendy Lockman, a former student of Haig Bartley at the University of Saskatchewan, wrote the first draft around 2012. It’s been revised several times after appearing as a short entry in the Saskatchewan Playwright Centre’s Spring Festival of New Plays, and later as a full-length reading.
Along the way, it was also chosen for a reading in New York City at Urban Stages’ spring festival.
That was a huge thrill, says Lockman. But she’s just as pleased that her dream cast has been attached to the play since its first readings.
“These three are amazing,” says Lockman, who works as a promotions co-ordinator in Swift Current.
“I really needed to bring them along for the ride. I couldn’t imagine anyone else in these parts.”
As for choosing the director, it was easy.
“The first step was finding a director that I knew who would be patient with me and the first person who popped into my head was Pam,” says Lockman. “She has energy and insight. She’s just lovely to work with. I knew the cast I wanted adored Pam as well. It just sort of went forward from there.”
Because the characters are easy to relate to, Haig Bartley sees a wide audience for the play, from younger to older.
“It has to do with hero worship, it has to do with life choices, it has to do with regret — the road not taken.”
For Lockman, who is always writing and has two other plays in the works, seeing her first play produced is bringing mixed emotions. She couldn’t have more confidence in the actors and director. But she’s still going to be nervous watching it.
“I’m thrilled beyond belief but I’m also terrified.”