Contemporary themes weave through layers of family’s tale
The press materials describe The Full Light of Day as having “the pacing of a thriller.”
Director Kim Collier agrees, somewhat.
“It has a bit of thriller to it,” Collier said.
“But it’s also a really intimate and deeply human piece. I guess the thriller aspect of it is in the scale of the unfolding events, which are pretty huge. But it’s more about the consequences of significant actions that come home to roost, and the level of corruption surrounding it.”
The Vancouver run marks the première of the Electric Company Theatre production. The local company’s previous works include the critically acclaimed Betroffenheit (2015).
Written by Toronto playwright Daniel Brooks, The Full Light of Day is about a terminally ill woman who confronts her husband’s corruption.
The story unfolds against a backdrop of finance and real estate, and involves a child who’s gone missing.
The city in which the story is set is not specified.
“It’s looking at the movement of global money, and how it takes up residence inside our cities,” Collier said.
“We live not so much in a regional or national time. We’re living in a global time. The questions that we’re asking belong to us together because the whole world is working like that. A decision made in Canada, in Toronto, can affect someone in Indonesia or Texas or Wales.”
It’s the second collaboration between Collier, a co-founder of Electric Company, and Toronto playwright Brooks. The Full Light of Day follows their 2018 production 40 Days and 40 Nights.
“As an artist, there are things he’s been working at, and thinking about,” the director said. “I would say this show is his epic in bringing so many layers of thought into the context of a family. He’s not someone who positions himself on the right or the left. A lot of things he was embedding in the piece — we’ve been working on it for quite a few years — were really ahead of the curve, with some of this incredible scandal that’s broken with the inequality between the sexes, and the challenge of money and how it works in the world.”
Live-streaming from 14 cameras, state-of-the-art projections and film will augment the onstage action.
“I don’t like working with media all the time because it’s a real handful, and I think theatre is exquisitely beautiful when it’s just an actor and an audience and a gorgeous shaft of light,” Collier said. “In this case it made sense to use it. The play is written in such a way that there are transactions between characters that required you to look in their eyes, or see a subtle touch or moment between people. These cameras allow us to bring those moments to the audience. It helps us say, ‘Here, have a look at this.’ ”
The cast includes Jim Mezon, Gabrielle Rose, Jillian Fargey, Dean Paul Gibson, John Ng, Jenny Young, and Jonathon Young, Collier’s longtime collaborator.
The play also marks the return of large-scale theatre to Vancouver Playhouse. The venue’s titular company closed in 2012, after 50 years of operation.
“We felt it was a large-stage production,” she said. “We had a lot of resources, but the
piece of where we could perform it in Vancouver was a tricky one to solve.”
She hopes people will leave the Playhouse “enlivened” by this pointedly contemporary work.
“Our hearts and minds respond to things that are written from today and with an esthetic that is surprising and fresh and not dusty,” she said. “And I hope people will take away some courage and strength and the sense that we’re not without power.
“And we’re not without responsibility either.”
She added, “The play asks a lot of the audience, and gives a lot to its audience.”