For ex-Victorian Kyra Harper, a ‘hard, humongous role’
What: Long Day’s Journey into Night Where: Roxy Theatre When: Opens tonight, continues to May 22 Tickets: $32 to $42 (250-382-3370 or Roxy box office 2657 Quadra St.)
In modern theatre, the great roles for older actresses include Amanda in The Glass Menagerie, Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Violet in August: Osage County.
And there’s Mary Tyrone from the 1956 play Long Day’s Journey into Night. A morphine-addicted character who haunts Eugene O’Neill’s drama like a glittery-eyed ghost, Mary is a big role in a long play. The running time for Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre’s new production is three hours and 45 minutes (including two intermissions).
To fill the role of Mary, director Brian Richmond enlisted Toronto’s Kyra Harper, a veteran stage actor who spent her teens in Victoria. Interviewed recently at the Roxy Theatre, Harper seemed happy to tackle the role — and rather daunted by its immensity.
“There’s been a number of times in rehearsal where I’ve said: ‘I can’t do this. I just can’t do this. It’s too hard and it’s too much,’ ” said Harper, a professional actor for 40-plus years.
“For a woman my age in the business, it’s not often that you get an opportunity to play a role like this. This is a humongous role, both emotionally and in size — the scope of the piece is huge.”
It helps that her husband, David Ferry, is cast as Mary’s husband. He plays larger-than-life James Tyrone, an aging actor who loves to grandstand.
Victoria audiences may remember Harper and Ferry from Blue Bridge’s stellar 2009 revival of Death of a Salesman, one of the company’s best productions to date. The couple played yet another husband and wife: Willy Loman and Linda.
Richmond, who deems the couple “two of Canada’s most accomplished actors,” says he cannot imagine mounting Long Day’s Journey without them.
“The fact that they are in real life, as well as on stage, husband and wife only adds to the intimacy and heartbreak of this American masterpiece on family life,” he said.
Harper said she and Ferry began preparing for Long Day’s Journey months ago. Last February, they even visited Tao House, O’Neill’s former home in Danville, California, where he wrote the play.
“It was an extraordinary experience. It was magnificent to be in the room where he wrote this piece. It was chilling. It really made you want to just dive into it,” said Harper, from the Roxy Theatre’s set, which represents the Tyrones’ 1912 living room.
One advantage of being married to the co-lead is the opportunity to rehearse at home as well as the rehearsal hall. It’s helpful. For instance, Harper says she and Ferry “struggled a little bit” with one encounter between Mary and Tyrone. Extra-curricular woodshedding helped them figure it out.
“We’ve been running lines and running lines. I think yesterday, we found what was really needed to drive the scene,” she said.
A film, television and theatre actor, Harper plays Dr. Virginia Coady on the Canadian sci-fi TV series Orphan Black. She spent her childhood in England and Europe, where her father was stationed with the Royal Air Force. When he retired, the family moved to Victoria, joining ex-pat friends who recommended the city.
Harper, who was then 12, attended St. Margaret’s School, but was expelled.
“It’s a long story,” she said. “I was swearing and being pretty nasty to the headmistress.”
It was the late 1960s. Her parents enrolled her in “Victoria’s first free school,” which had a more relaxed approach to rules. Soon, Harper found herself acting in such plays as Hay Fever and The Crucible for the Bastion Theatre under the leadership of artistic director Peter Mannering.
She left Victoria at the age of 18, initially finding work at Regina’s Globe Theatre, run by Ken and Sue Kramer. Mentored by such old hands as Mannering and the Kramers, Harper landed roles without the benefit of formal training. She later applied to the National Theatre School as a mature student in her mid-20s, but was turned down because she was already a working actor.
For Harper, the ultimate acting is to truly inhabit the skin of one’s character.
It doesn’t always happen. But when it does, it’s glorious, she said.
“For me, there’s a moment where I go: ‘Ah, OK, I’m there. I feel her. I’m in her skin.’ It’s the click moment, the magical moment for me.”