When Did You Last See My Mother?

By Anna DeMello, Staff Contributor

The month of November was a good one for theatre and performance enthusiasts in Halifax. It marked the first (and hopefully annual) theatre festival at Theatre Nova Scotia’s performance space, The Living Room, on Agricola Street. The month-long event, The Live In, is being held by DaPoPo Theatre, and has featured skill-share workshops, play readings, as well as a live performance of When Did You Last See My Mother? a play by Christopher Hampton.
The festival began on Nov. 1 with an opening gala and has since included such events as Taxes for the Self-Employed Theatre Artist, Introduction to Neutral Mask and Mask (a workshop on mask performance and the connection of the mask to the body), and Voice Work for Actors and Non-Actors.
The play is directed by Steven Bourque. It was actually written nearly 50 years ago by Christopher Hampton, but Bourque saw many parallels between its subject matter and issues dealt with by people in today’s society.
“What drew me to the play originally was the story of this one character, Iain, who is a really interesting character,” says Bourke, “Everyone is sort of a satellite to him in this play. The play was written in 1964 but it’s so contemporary in the way people talk to one another. At the time it was very kind of risqué and shocking, and was this huge expose on a very frank dealing with homosexuality. The way the characters consider themselves and the way they think about their own sexuality and personal identity seemed surprisingly contemporary to me. They have this kind of modern sensibility and are pretty relaxed about who they’re sleeping with versus who they’re in love with … or who they go to bed with when drunk at a party or something. That’s why I thought this wasn’t just a dated piece. And we aren’t trying to present this as a period piece, because the themes and topics of the play are very contemporary. People have been talking about and struggling with these ideas for like the past 50 years.”
Bourque is from Nova Scotia and grew up just outside of New Glasgow. He attended Bishop’s University in Quebec and graduated from their Drama program. His interest in directing came while at school, and he says that, because the department was fairly small, there were many opportunities for student initiatives, such as coordinating festivals, and writing and directing plays. Upon graduating in 2005, he returned to Halifax and eventually became involved with DaPoPo Theatre after meeting with Garry Williams, Artistic Director and founding member.
Bourque says that Sher Clain, now an actress in When Did You Last See My Mother, originally approached him about producing the play. They were, however, unclear about a venue for the performances, and ended up delaying production. The entire play occurs in a living room setting, and Bourque felt as though Theatre Nova Scotia’s The Living Room was the perfect venue. He also decided to make the most of the rehearsal space for the month.
“This was more affordable than other spaces,” Bourke says, “When we booked the space for the month we realized that even if we rehearsed for eight hours a day, there’s a lot of time that other things could be happening in it. We decided to fill the time with other activities. This place is really well suited to the play readings, but it’s hard to produce a conventional play here. There’s no real backstage, so we decided design-wise to just deal with the space.”
As we talk I can see that there are old television sets and video cameras set up around the room, filming the set. Bourque says that televisions and cameras have become such a language and medium for us in the early 21st century. He says that they’re part of the set as a way to present how we look at the past- namely through television documentaries or old TV shows.
Bourque says he didn’t tweak the play to make it more modern, although that was considered originally. He thought about omitting all of the dated references, and British terms like “bugger off” or “I’m going out with this bird.” However, a lot of changes would have been necessary and he was unable to obtain the playwright’s permission. Rehearsals began in September for this month’s performances.
When casting roles, Bourque says he looks for actors that are open in several senses of the word: “They need to be open to discussions with the director to portraying different characters. I like to take the time to work with people in an audition to gauge how we establish a dialogue. That kind of influences my decision about who I’d want to work with, rather than if they’d necessarily fit the role right away. It’s so hard to tell in an audition of 5 to10 minutes. An actor will evolve from when they first start rehearsing to the finished product.”
Bourque himself has a small role in the play, alongside four other actors – Sher Clain, Ambyr Dunn, Blake Prendergast and Iain Soder. Prendergast, a University of King’s College student, is in his final year of a BA in political science, and has starred in various shows with the King’s Theatrical Society.
Bourque says that this is probably one of the best casts he’s ever worked with as a director or an actor, and after seeing the play myself I’m sure he was being sincere. This production is truly entertaining and unique. It deals with relationships between roommates, friends, family members and lovers. It deals with forbidden love, relationships forever changed by sexual encounters, sexual identity, economic hardship, and family tension and expectations.
The dialogue is smart and Iain Soder steals the show with his amazing performance as the lead character. All of the actors are sensational, and seeing the play in such a tight setting is a treat. Bourque agrees that the intimate feeling of a small venue is part of what makes theatre so special, and that here in Halifax a theatre-enthusiast can satisfy their craving for a good show at a decent price at locations such as the Bus Stop Theatre on Gottingen Street, as well as The Living Room on Agricola.