Peach grows from Fringe play to headliner
Everyone comes of age, but how many people have the documentation to prove it?
Danielle Roy went back to the journal she’s been keeping since she was seven years old to check in on the person she was. Based on a defining period of her life from 17 to 21, she wrote the play Peach.
“It’s about the first time I kissed a guy, the first time I had sex. It’s a coming-of-age story. It kind of touches on some pretty intense topics but at the same time, it’s really kind of funny,” says Roy.
From the start, she knew Alex Hartshorn would be part of it. The two are close friends, having met at the University of Saskatchewan almost 10 years ago.
Hartshorn’s background in dance and choreography helped shape the play.
“It’s not your typical one-woman show where it’s kind of a park-and-bark,” she says. “There’s so much in the words, but then there’s also so much happening in the action of it.”
The play came together just in time for the Regina Fringe in 2016. It went on to Winnipeg, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Vancouver that summer, earning three five-star reviews.
It returns for a run at Live Five featuring a couple of new scenes to add clarity, more refined tech and a running time that’s about 10 minutes longer than the hour-long original.
It’s a bigger canvas to work with, but Roy didn’t want to add clutter.
“Sometimes simple is better. I didn’t want to go crazy just because I could; I wanted to serve the story.”
It wasn’t easy going back and reliving
the darker moments from that period of her life, but Roy is glad she did.
“I have to thank Alex and I have to thank my team because, honestly, they gave me the courage to say this is an OK thing to talk about; this isn’t something I should feel shame about. This is something that a lot of people experience.
“It’s been a healing process and very rewarding.”