The Citizen-Blyth Festival, 1999-06-23, Page 37PAGE 18. BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 79yy.
Every Dream deals with fears of families in the ’90s
By Janice Becker
Citizen staff
As a writer, James Nichol goes
beyond the characters’ words in his
plays, delving into what the play is
really about as well as seeing the
face value.
Every Dream tells the story of a
family caught in the recent
recession of the mid-1990s, and
the toll it takes on all their lives.
The father loses his job with a
manufacturing company after 30
years. The wife fears her nursing
job may also be gone due to
hospital amalgamation. The
daughter is out of teachers’ college
and no one is hiring and the lawyer
son is selling investments in a land
development deal.
When the father must make a
major decision about the family’s
future, he choses one which could
destroy them.
However, for Nichol, the tale is
“really about” a 31-year
relationship and the frustrations
and old hurts which often go
unmentioned, though there is still a
great deal of love.
In trying to cope with the
frustrations, the husband will just
not talk about things and the wife
pulls him down with passive-
aggressive little jabs.
“It is like guerrilla warfare,” says
Nichol. “They are now just
tolerating each other.”
The financial pressures only
exacerbate the problems.
When the son arrives with his
investment proposal, it is like a
bomb exploding in the middle of
the relationship, says Nichol. “It
blows it apart.”
However, the explosion may be
just what the marriage needed as
the couple is forced to talk. They
are both strengthened and they find
out who they are and what they
believe in, he says. “They vent at
each other.”
The question is, can they
overcome the wreckage?
Nichol says Every Dream began
with a concern for all families
coping with the recession. “It
started as an 'every family social
milieu’, but shifted from the social
aspect to the relationship.
“I was concerned about
A family
story
Seaforth-area
writer James
Nichol examines
how hard times
affect
relationships
within a family in
Every Dream.
The play offers
humour as well
as strong
emotions.
•WEDDINGS,
Thanks to The Blyth Festival for providing
great entertainment for the past 25 seasons.
downsizing affecting people not
only financially but spiritually. I
felt sorry for all those kids
graduating who did what they were
told they needed to do and after,
there was nothing there for them.”
Though the times have
supposedly changed for the better,
Nichol says the social situation is
still there for many and the trials of
relationships are universal and
timeless.
The play should serve the
audience, whether in laughter or
dark drama, he says. It should
resonate and reflect back to
strengthen the observer.
“That is what we are supposed to
do. It is our function as
storytellers.”
Nichol, who lives near Seaforth,
has made a career as a playwright
for the stage, radio and television.
Back to Blyth for his fourth
production, (his most recent was
the acclaimed The Stone Angel)
Nichol says the Festival is unique
and pre-eminent in Canada for its
commissioning and developing of
new plays.
“Blyth is important, brave and
exciting. Nothing is more exciting
than seeing the birth of something,
seeing it breathe its first breath.”
Nichol says many urban theatres
are often unwilling to take the risks
with unproven plays as Blyth does.
They wait and see what might
work for them from other
productions.
Nichol is also impressed with the
openness of the audiences attracted
to the Festival.
" “They come with a feeling they
will be entertained. They are open
to what the artist has to give.
“You must allow yourself the
freedom to go with the story, be
part of the imagination. Blyth
audiences are willing to take that
trip.”
Mac Campbell
.................J 15
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Every Dream
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