The Citizen, 2012-07-19, Page 19THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2012. PAGE 19.
Behind the Bars begins
‘Hope’ bookends Coates’s time with Festival
With the reality of Blyth Festival
seasons being planned years in
advance, Artistic Director Eric
Coates couldn’t have planned to
bookend his Blyth Festival career as
perfectly as it has turned out.
It was the 2003 season when
Coates says he was literally saved by
a play he found in a drawer called
Having Hope at Home. It was his
first season as the Festival’s artistic
director and David S. Craig’s play
brought him success from a play
many before him had passed over.
Now in 2012, Coates, who
recently announced he would be
stepping down from his position in
Blyth to become the artistic director
for Ottawa’s Great Canadian Theatre
Company, brought Craig’s play back
for what will be Coates’s final
season.
Having Hope at Home is a
relatable story in some ways and
unrelatable in others. However, in
the ways the story is unrelatable,
that’s a good thing.
Craig’s story is about a family that
doesn’t always get along and has,
historically, had communications
issues: relatable. At the same time
it’s about a young girl, married to
someone from Quebec, who is
alienated from her father, the head of
obstetrics at an area hospital, and her
mother, who has raised over $2
million for that same hospital and
can throw one hell of a dinner party:
unrelatable to many.
The situation Caroline (played
wonderfully by Haley McGee) finds
herself in, on face value, is most
certainly unrelatable to most, but at
its core, many of us have been there
before, especially those of us living
in Huron County.
Caroline finds herself in a battle
over lifestyle. She is attached to a
lifestyle her parents can’t
understand. She lives with her
grandfather Russell (the hilarious
Duval Lang) and her boyfriend
Michel (Rylan Wilkie) in a farm
house that is falling apart.
She hosts her parents for dinner,
extending the olive branch, as she
says, despite being dangerously
close to giving birth, which she has
planned to do through a midwife,
which is as good as a four-letter
word to her father Bill (Michael
Spencer Davis).
Upon arrival, Bill and his wife
Jane (Catherine Fitch) discover the
state of the home. They see it in
shambles, they find insulation
coming out of the walls and a lack of
heating, despite the cold winter
(Caroline says it’s only sometimes
that she has to break the ice in the
toilet).
Jane is brought nearly to tears at
the conditions Caroline has
subjected herself too. Jane
categorizes what her daughter has
been reduced “poor” despite having
trouble even pursing her lips to spit
the word out she’s so disgusted by
the prospect.
Caroline and Michel, however,
love their life, modest though it is.
In preparation for dinner, Caroline
does her best Jane impression,
setting the table with family-handed-
down china and she readies Michel
for her parents’ drink orders (one
finger of Scotch for Bill, which
Michel unknowingly measures
incorrectly – one vertical finger, as
opposed to the traditional horizontal
measurement).
A spanner is thrown into the
works, however, when Caroline
begins having contractions and
Michel insists on calling the
midwife, Dawn (Marion Day), a
confident professional who knows
when to put her foot down.
Caroline hides Dawn’s identity for
as long as she can (first she’s
Russell’s girlfriend and then a
veterinarian) until Bill and Jane get
wise to what Caroline is going
through.
What follows is a turf war between
Bill and Jane’s world of wine cellars
and Royal Doulton figurines and
Caroline and Michel’s world of
cowboy shirts and bathrooms where
one must “pull the duck” in order to
properly finish a visit to the lavatory.
Bill, particularly, can’t believe that
Caroline would fight so hard to hold
on to a lifestyle he ran away from
just as passionately.
He addresses his hatred for the
farm in several scenes with his
father. Russell says when Bill was
younger, a trip to the barn ended in
disappointment for both of them.
Dawn, however, provides an
unlikely source for a level head and
a dose of reason, insisting that
what’s best for Caroline and her
unborn baby should be the focus, not
the family members’ petty
disagreements with one another.
So while Caroline attempts to get
married to Michel, give birth to the
couple’s first child and make sure
the turkey has been in the oven long
enough, she hopes to inadvertently
reconcile with her parents and bring
the five together as a family unit.
Day and McGee are great in their
hilarious, and emotional character
turns, while Davis and Lang perfect
the rocky father/son relationship.
Fitch is great as the stuck-up mother
and fish out of water, while Wilkie
excels at giving the audience the
complete opposite.
Before Friday night’s premiere,
Coates told the audience that Having
Hope at Home is one of the many
plays that was born in Blyth, spent
several years out in the world and
has now returned to Blyth a stronger
story than ever. As Coates puts the
finishing touches on his final season
and, after a decade in Blyth,
prepares to fly the coop for Ottawa,
he is no doubt poised to be the
latest in a long line of well-received
Blyth exports to the rest of the
world.
Having Hope at Home plays at the
Festival until August 18. For more
information or to buy tickets visit
www.blythfestival.com
Continued from page 12
Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and
Sunday, 1 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The Huron Historic Gaol is
located at the corner of Victoria
Street North (Hwy. 21) and
Gloucester Terrace in Goderich. For
more information about our summer
events please call the Huron Historic
Gaol at 519-524-6971.
Friends and family
are invited to aReception
for
Joanne and Mike Dixon
who were married in
Las Vegas on July 7
July 28 ~ 8:00 p.m.
Blyth Community Centre
(casual dress)
Laura Youngblut, daughter of
Darryl and Karen Youngblut of
Blyth, has graduated from
Westervelt College in London
as a Registered Massage
Therapist. She is working at the
Wingham Massage Therapy
Centre. We are very proud of
you Laura. Congratulations.
Love Mom and Dad, Derek and
Allison and Cory.
Graduation
Happy 25th
Anniversary
Larry & Linda Plaetzer
on July 11
Love from your family
WEDDINGWEDDING
SOCIALSOCIAL
for
Jamie Lewis
&
Matt Teeter
Saturday, July 28
Pork BBQ
6:00 - 8:00 pm
followed by games,
prizes and DJ
at 37527 Belfast Rd.,
Lucknow (St. Helens)
Tickets: $10.
Call 519-525-2529
or 519-523-9435
BYOB
Please join us
ROBERT & RUTH
CAMPBELL
as we celebrate our
50TH WEDDING
ANNIVERSARY
Sat.July 21
st
at the
Winthrop Ball Park Pavilion
Come and Go from 1:30 - 4 pm
Best Wishes Only Please
Entertainment Leisure&
A stressful night
Having Hope at Home, the latest show to premiere at the Blyth Festival, opened on Friday
night. With its world premiere in Blyth 10 years earlier, Caroline, left, played by Haley McGee,
goes into labour when her parents come over for dinner, leading to an interesting night for all
involved. From left: McGee, Marion Day as Dawn, Catherine Fitch as Jane, Michael Spencer
Davis as Bill and Duval Lang as Russell. (Terry Manzo photo)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen