Undercurrents Festival of One Act Plays: Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show. Verbatim Theatre Tells Human Stories Behind the Stereotypes of Oil, Drugs and Desolation.
Even with the latest census pointing out Canadian’s migration to the West, Alberta can still sometimes seem like a wilderness, especially outside of Edmonton. Images of the adventure-hungry and young pouring to work for its oil companies abound. Yet, there’s much more to the place than meets the eye. This is exactly what Toronto’s Architect Theatre points out in Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show, set in and around For McMurray. Based on interviews with long-term residents and those passing through, Highway 63 show that, behind the stereotypes of oil, drugs, and desolation, lie very human stories.
The play centers around three young characters encompassing a love triangle – Mary (played by Georgina Beaty), a For McMurray native hoping to study dance in Toronto, Steve (Jonathan Seinen), a nerdy reclamation engineer, and Chad (Greg Gale), a rough yet sensitive Newfoundland trucker. Snapshots of other characters effectively portray the complexity of feeling in Fort McMurray.
There’s a French-Canadian worker looking for fun and spending his money at the casino, an old woman who challenges us to find a better place, and a closeted gay man looking for a connection on Craigslist. The play’s strength lies in its portrayal of multiple points of view. The research involved in writing the show is evident and the result an enticing mix of the political and the personal.
Gale’s Chad gets the most reaction as the funny, crass Easterner, but all three actors are flexible and believable. They manage to create a space of familiarity and compassion in everyone they portray.
Corbeil Coleman uses the every bit of space to keep the play and story flowing, from the far corners of stage right and left to the audience seating itself.
There are parts where the directing could be tightened up. Chad’s dream sequence is over-dramatic the lighting kitschy. However, overall, it is a success. Architect Theatre has created a nuanced play about a much-contended issue and showed a different, less stereotyped view of Alberta
Highway 63. The Fort Mac Show
An Architect Theatre Production
Created by: The Company with Layne Coleman
Director: Charlotte Corbeil Coleman
Stage manager: Christine Khalifah
Cast:
Georgina Beaty
Brendan McMurty-Howlett
Jonathan Senen