That is how I imagine this play really came to be - Wiebe delved deep deep deep into his 10 year old self and this is what he pulled out.
It is a smart choice for a first time play. It deals with Mennonite themes and there is a huge Mennonite community in Manitoba that is completely underserviced for theatre. It deals with sex and people like sex. It's a comedy and people do like the comedy. I think this could be an incredibly succesful suite of plays for Mr. Wiebe.
I thought the action of the play was excellent - the sexing and the piano playing and the...well OK that was the action but it did keep my eyes entertained.
The tensions set up between the characters was a bit more challenging for me. Every one of the characters wanted to make a baby. Great. So it was done. Great. And then everyone started second guessing their actions. Fine but. I was not convinced by their vacillations. I know people have doubts. I know people change their minds - all the time. But I was not convinced that these characters had actually changed their minds, or were really teetering between what was and what they wanted. It's not that I don't believe people are complicated it's just that I thought that there was not enough basis for these characters' see-saw feeling. It felt artificial - I was just not convinced.
The low German accent is HARD! It is so hard. If you turn your back on it for even a second it is suddenly Jamaican, or Irish, or a million other things - tricky bugger. I have nothing but a great deal of respect for the actors who got as much of this accent on the stage as they did. Oy!
The sound cues were embarassing. I don't know what the intent was but we can do better than this. If they were supposed to be silly they should have been much sillier and if they were supposed to be realistic then they missed the mark by a mile.
Neither the talk back nor the lecture changed my opinion about the play but it was very kind of Wiebe to generously give so much of his time to us. These are some of the things he shared with us.
At the talkback Wiebe said that it took 5 years to write the play in total. That made me very nervous when I thought about my IPP - I intend to write a play in less than a year. oy.
Giving some great general advice, Wiebe exhorted us to trust in the intelligence of our audience. Never underestimate your audience or they will turn around and do the same for you.
During the lecture, Wiebe explained that as an emerging playwright he had provincial and city arts grants available to him. He would have received more grants but he would need to be an established playwright. Something for CreComm students to keep in mind as they embark on writing projects - there is grant money available for first time writers, not a lot, but some, and every little bit helps.
Wiebe said that his play is practically unique for modern low German drama. He could only think of two other examples but the presence of low german on the Internet is increasing. I think this is great niche market to develop - calling out anyone who speaks low German.
Finally, Wiebe's description of what it is like to turn a play over to actors was so apt and so accurate - it's really a perfect description of the experience.
"I felt like my play was a trampoline with actors testing the springs to see if it would hold."
