Who knew misery could be so much fun? Mick Gordon’s Bea — running at Shadow Theatre until Feb. 9 — is described by Amanda Goldberg in her director’s notes as “a constant reminder of what it means to live in a world not built for you (and) to exist against a societal backdrop of indifference, ignorance and neglect.”
To see the play on stage, however, is to experience joy and love and laughter, even as those emotions appear against the backdrop of medically assisted suicide. Three strong performances and a brilliant script remind us why live theatre continues to inspire in this lucky town.
Bea was written in 2010 by Gordon, an Irish playwright, during a political debate over medically assisted death in the United Kingdom. In some ways, here in Canada, the play feels dated — broadly speaking, people with terminal conditions can end their lives with dignity and at a time of their choosing. But while there may be no need for loved ones to conspire in a way that won’t send someone’s mother to jail, the tortured and uncomfortably conscious decision to facilitate death will always elicit a range of difficult emotions.
As the play opens, Mrs. James (the brisk, but nicely nuanced Kate Newby) is hiring a caregiver for her daughter Beatrice (Kristin Unruh). Bea, 26, has an unspecified illness that has, over eight years, robbed her of a normal life. She is confined to bed, can hardly speak and is in a great deal of pain. On a good day, Bea may tackle her hobby – crafting earrings. Here it must be noted that the set design by Ximena Pinilla, which features numerous large panels of glittering and showy earrings and a rack of shimmering gowns in Bea’s bedroom, subtly reminds the audience of the person Bea was before illness stole life’s sparkly bits.
Enter Ray (Michael Watt). He’s been a caregiver for two years, and perhaps his whole life. His sister Sandra is autistic. One thing he has learned through Sandra is how hard it is to get inside the head and heart of another person. Empathy is at the root of the play. Where do you find it, how can it be applied, and are there limits to what can be expected of loved ones faced with unimaginable decisions?
Ray and Bea hit it off right away, and though Mrs. James is skeptical (Ray is a bit of a character), she agrees to hire him on a trial basis. Bea and Ray connect in a way that’s reminiscent of Jojo Moyes’ popular 2012 romance novel and 2016 movie, Me Before You (although Gordon got there first). There isn’t an actual romance between Bea and Ray, but the two zig and zag in effervescent tandem.
The play (I saw it in preview) is quite whimsical, and largely disconnected from the daily grind of a terminal illness. The audience sees Bea as the winsome young woman she was before she became ill; indeed, the play opens as Bea is dancing around her bedroom, singing into a hairbrush microphone along to Pink’s Just Like a Pill. It is that spirit, still present from time to time, that engages Ray, although it’s also true that Ray lives in his own world and Bea is but the audience.
Edmonton artist Michael Watt does a bang-up job in the role of Ray. A recent graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA acting program, Watt is a frequent collaborator with Jacquelin Walters; you may have seen them (as I did) at the 2024 Fringe Festival in a madcap, held-over production called Let’s Not Turn On Each Other. Mick Gordon is a skilled writer (one wonders what he could do with iambic pentameter, so lyrical is his prose) and Watt handles the rapid-fire dialogue between Ray and, well, himself, with dexterity. Ray is funny, he is irrepressible and he goes well beyond the call of duty in his care of Bea.
Unruh brings considerable skills as a singer and dancer to the stage in this production. It can be hard for the audience to appreciate that her character is near death, so lively is Bea in scenes largely played out in her imagination. The play is very long (115 minutes, folks, nearly two hours) for a one-act. The ending feels not just lengthy, but overwrought; perhaps the playwright and the director felt a need to balance the overall joy of the production with agony by painting the final scene with a heavily laden brush. Still, the playwright’s decision to focus on life, and not death, is what makes the play so appealing.
REVIEW
Bea, by Mick Gordon, presented by Shadow Theatre
Director: Amanda Goldberg
Featuring: Kate Newby, Kristin Unruh and Michael Watt
Where: Varscona Theatre 10329 83 Ave.
When: Through Feb. 9
Tickets: From $28 by visiting shadowtheatre.org or calling 780-434-5564