Actors embrace dark undertones of Communion

Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor has a knack for creating intense family drama where nothing really seems as it is.

Although hailed as a gentler production, Communion, now being mounted by Theatre Network, touches on themes of addiction, therapy, family dysfunction and fundamentalist Christianity.

In doing so this three-character story becomes a pivotal turning point in the lives of three women desperately searching for some kind of meaning.

Sterling Award-winner Marianne Copithorne (Woman in Black, Palace of the End) describes Communion as an homage to MacIvor’s interest in therapy, a service he’s admittedly used for the past 17 years while wrestling with his own problems.

Running Feb. 2 to 20 at the Roxy Theatre, lead character Leda (Natascha Girgis) is a recovering alcoholic trying to reconnect with her daughter Anne, a former drug dealer and an extremist abortion protester.

During her alcoholic phase, Leda gave up custody to her daughter. “Anne is an especially angry young woman and everything she does is to get back at her mom,” explains Copithorne.

Sarah Sharkey (The Tornado, Spine), a former St. Albert resident and 2010 graduate of the University of Alberta’s bachelor of fine arts program, takes on the volatile role of Anne. “She has a lot of misdirected anger. Ultimately she’s deceived herself into fighting battles with other people. She’s on the threshold of making big decisions in her life and she’s in a dark place.”

“She’s also realizing everything is not about her. She’s not always the victim. People are not always trying to victimize her and there’s a greater connection and a greater energy that holds people together.”

Carolyn, played by St. Albert Children’s Theatre alumna Kate Ryan (The Christmas Carol, Dial M For Murder, The Exquisite Hour), is a therapist dedicated to helping her clients reconnect with that energy. However, Carolyn too is fighting demons.

While Carolyn has chosen to help others, she has less fortune in understanding herself and struggles with deep challenges. “She has felt alone. She has felt like a failure and she has made huge choices to leave and move on,” says Ryan.

In preparation for this role, Ryan watched films and television programs and observed therapists’ different roles as listeners. “Some people want a quick fix. But a therapist’s role is to help find the answers from within.”

And MacIvor is a master wordsmith at using language to deliver the message and heighten the tension. “It’s not hard-hitting. There are actually a lot of well chosen silences.”

Sharkey adds that MacIvor is celebrating relationships. “It’s about what you can selflessly give to others and accept what they give to you and that is a very powerful notion.”