Ottawa Fringe 2013: Dolores with Nancy Kenny in Acadian French

Dolores by Edward Allan Baker directed by Tania Levy featuring Nancy Kenny and Martine Roquebrune 

Site specific naturalistic drama in the kitchen (of the church) where two sisters meet and reconcile in this impeccably constructed and very moving two-hander. A terrified Dolores (Nancy Kenny) comes to her sister (Sandra) for help. Her husband is battering her, has been for a long time and she doesn’t know where to turn. Sandra wants no part of it but family ties prevail, in all the emotional pressure, Sandra finally reveals the truth about her own marriage and the sisters find each other in a new closeness but not before a surprise ending that suggests the real tragedy to come. A taught drama that Kenny has translated into Acadian French and that takes a few minutes to plug into but the text and the translation work very well. Martine Roquebrune was convincing as the distraught sister who seemed to be living something real in this gut-wrenching naturalism. What is less successful is Kenny’s performance that never once convinces us she is a deeply distraught battered woman. She shows us an elegant, sophisticated middle class character playing at being a victim. The character (whom the actress and the director still have to define more clearly) has not yet inhabited the actress. That was opening night however and no doubt her performance will grow.

See it at 473, Cumberland, St. Paul’s Eastern United Church, Performed in Acadian French.