'Small Things' count in PTE premiere of Daniel MacIvor play
“It’s like he’s made of love,” says Dell, one of the characters in Daniel MacIvor’sSmall Things, of her son.
MacIvor’s play, too, feels like it’s made of love. A brand new work, Small Things sees its world premiere at Prairie Theatre Exchange, which commissioned the piece from one of Canada’s most popular playwrights. The result is a play that’s certainly likeable, if not totally head-over-heels lovable.
The short three-hander (it runs just 90 minutes with intermission) centres around three women trying to find connection, common ground, and yes, even love, in the modern world.
Patricia (Barbara Gordon) is a retired teacher who hires motor-mouthed Birdy (Ellen Peterson) as a housekeeper. They’re an odd couple from the start — Patricia is formal and properly patrician while Birdy is a plain-spoken woman who never met a silence she couldn’t fill with what Patricia archly calls “prattle.”
Their relationship is mediated by Birdy’s daughter Dell (Alissa Watson), who’s trying to figure out what to do with her own life. At the same time, she’s trying to navigate raising two pre-teen boys, one of whom is transgendered.
Plenty of heart
If it sounds like MacIvor is throwing a lot into the mix here, he is.
The play touches glancingly on everything from medical marijuana use to elder care to gender issues to economic division. Its short, sometimes choppy, scene structure means it never delves too deeply into any of these big things.
But it’s not really a play about those issues. What it is about is a bit more nebulous — the small things, the things we too often take for granted, that bring these characters together are what really lie at the play’s heart. And it is a play with plenty of heart.
Take, for example, Patricia and Birdy’s bonding over the music of Schubert, which Birdy finds sad, Patricia stirring, but both agree is beautiful for its stirring sadness.
Bonding over music seems a small thing. But it’s really the differences in the characters’ perspective that are small, and surmountable in the drive to human connection.
Excellent performances
The heart in MacIvor’s subtle, gentle script shines through in Robert Metcalfe’s snappy production. It moves quickly, thanks in part to swift scene changes courtesy of Brian Perchaluk’s rotating set.
And the three women in the cast all turn in excellent performances. Gordon is properly stiff at first as Patricia but warms considerably and convincingly (watching her get the giggles courtesy of Dell’s “medicinal aids” is worth the price of admission alone).
Peterson is entirely genuine and believably down-to-earth as Birdy. And Watson brings a grounded maturity to Dell. All three handle the demands of the quick dialogue, and Metcalfe’s sharp pacing, admirably.
In the end, Small Things offers plenty of laughs and is consistently engaging. But it’s not MacIvor’s finest work.
Its brevity and abrupt ending give the feeling of a play that’s been sketched out but not quite fully developed. Even so, its feel-good charm is undeniable.
The small things, it seems, really do count.
Small Things runs at Prairie Theatre Exchange until Nov. 2.
