Review by Adam Kveton
There is a use to two-dimensional characters, and the ECHO Players’ latest performance makes a near-brilliant use of them.
Their production of Hilda’s Yard, about a couple who are excited to have their adult children out of the roost only to see them return, begins with Hilda Fluck (played by Kerry Campbell) worrying over the prospective purchase of a TV.
The play is set in 1956, so a TV that costs $337.45 is a pretty big deal.
Enter Hilda’s husband, Sam Fluck (played by Steve Hill), acting like the pinnacle of middle class, suburban fatherhood — stiffly wearing a brown suit with a confident grin on his face, who knows beyond a doubt he’ll cleverly barter the TV salesman down to a more reasonable price.
At first, the performance seems rigid and two-dimensional, reminiscent of the black-and-white characters in the movie Pleasantville. Other characters are played with similar two-dimensionality, including Shaleena Faust playing daughter Janey Fluck, Cory Spence playing son Gary Fluck, and Sheridan Collyer-Valens playing Gary’s girl, Bobbi Jakes.
Janey is the young wife who doesn’t want to clean and is already becoming interested in another man. Gary is the happy-go-lucky son who knows life will work out even though he’s clearly failing at it. Bobbi is the epitome of a cutting-edge young woman of the time — pants-wearing with short hair who speaks almost exclusively in slang.
All four of them play these stereotypes faithfully throughout the play, but what’s smart about that is, as the audience learns more and more about their characters, giving them three-dimensionality, those stereotypes expand.
For example, Janey comes off as shallow, enjoying the attention of men, even if they’re lewd and she’s just met them. And perhaps she is, but she actually has a good reason for leaving her husband. And it’s not that cleaning is beneath her necessarily, but that she has a commendable dream beyond being a housewife.
Gary, for instance, is beyond-a-doubt a sap and far too cheerful, but his relationship with Bobbi isn’t sad or silly — it’s admirable.
But perhaps no character gains in depth like Sam. As Sam’s world seems to fall apart a little bit more with each scene, Hill’s performance grows more and more animated. At first, a simple stare out into the audience is enough to show the energy that Sam has lost. By the end of the play, he’s near to tears.
While the comedy delivers in laughs, with great one-liners often coming from Campbell (who does a fantastic job), Hilda’s Yard asks the audience to do much more than just point and laugh at what they see on stage.
The play, and the way the actors play their characters, speaks to the stereotypes they portray. It’s like playwright Norm Foster is holding up the middle class, suburban 1950s family cliche to the light, and showing the complexity that actually exists within them.
The ECHO Players production of Hilda’s Yard supports that work.
And, in large part, the play works for a contemporary audience, despite portraying family life of about 60 years ago.
That’s not to say there aren’t spots where the play’s 1950s sensibility fails a bit to translate to current times.
Though first produced in 2012, there remains some old-world awkwardness with the character Beverly Woytowich, a bookie played by Ian Morton.
Woytowich is given further depth as the play goes on just as the other characters are, and Morton does a credible job playing the surprisingly erudite gangster.
But his character’s advances on one of the women, who tells the audience she doesn’t want to be treated like second-hand goods, ends with her agreeing to be goods.
While that situation will rankle some audiences, most of the play succeeds in introducing forward-thinking ideas, and there is plenty to love and laugh about in the comedy/drama.
Performances of Hilda’s Yard continue to Oct. 29 at the Village Theatre in Qualicum Beach. For box-office hours, or to buy tickets online, go to www.echoplayers.ca/tickets.php.