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Jul 05, 2024
"We are just making the plays we are supposed to make," said Rolan Milligan.
Persephone Theatre is kicking off its season with a sapphic story about human relationships and relived memories.
The theatre’s first mainstage show of the season is Bright Half Life, a play by Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Tanya Barfield, directed by Kathryn Smith.
Margo MacDonald, a Toronto actor taking on the role of Erica, said the two-woman show follows a lesbian couple who meet in the year 1985 and traces their romantic journey all the way through the year 2030.
The show cuts back and forth in time, MacDonald explained, reflecting on the couple’s fun and flirty times, hardships, and milestones like having kids and getting married.
“Ultimately, the play is about love. There’s a lot of humour, there’s a lot of heart,” MacDonald said.
“It’s a very human story, and I think everyone who watches it will feel it echo in their own relationships.”
Kris Alvarez, the Treaty 4 actor who plays Vicky, agreed that that love is a big part of the message conveyed in the play. She said she hopes people attend with an open heart.
“Love is a big word,” she said. “It’s like a room that needs to be made bigger and renovated to fit all the different versions of it.”
MacDonald called the process of putting together the show “magical,” adding that those involved in it have poured all their talent and heart into its production.
One of the challenging parts about the process, according to MacDonald, was learning lines in a script with a jumbled timeline.
Alvarez compared that timeline to how she and other people experience real memories, looking at things in different ways, from different angles and perspectives.
“We have different versions of a memory, and that’s what I love about this show,” Alvarez said.
Curtains rise for the premiere on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., and the show runs through Oct. 1.
More information and tickets can be found on Persephone’s website.