Vancouver hot topics set to hit the stage in new Firehall production
Credit to Author: Dana Gee| Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2020 19:00:47 +0000
House and Home
When: Jan. 11-25, 2020
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
Tickets and info:firehallartscentre.ca
Homelessness and housing costs: Those things are often the content of the conversations of just about everyone that lives in or near Vancouver.
With that in mind it is no surprise that a local playwright has used those topics as fuel for a tough but comedic story about people trying to come to terms with the difficulties of where and how to live in Vancouver.
Jenn Griffin’s new play House and Home runs from Jan. 11 to 25 at the Firehall Arts Centre.
Jenn Griffin’s new play House and Home, that received an Arts Club Silver Commission, runs Jan 11-25 at Vancouver’s Firehall Arts Centre.
“When I read the script I knew we needed to do this, it’s so relevant to how people are dealing with housing in Vancouver, or not dealing with housing, because it is so difficult,” said Firehall Arts Centre’s artistic producer Donna Spencer. who is also directing the play. “In terms of the mix of the season’s programming I thought it was a very funny piece but also a very relevant piece that I think our audience will be interested in.”
It is not lost on Spencer that the play will be performed in a theatre located smack dab in the Downtown Eastside, just a block away from the homeless camp in Oppenheimer Park.
Firehall Arts Centre’s artistic producer Donna Spencer is directing House and Home, which runs from Jan. 11 to 25 at the Firehall Arts Centre.
“We see homelessness all the time and people assume homelessness happens because people are careless, have lifestyle choices that get in the way, or whatever,” said Spencer. “That’s not always the case. In many cases people just can’t find homes they can afford.
“I don’t think we are aware of how many people are really struggling. The price of living in this city has gotten so out of control. It’s confusing to me as to how all this happened.”
At the centre of House and Home is Hilary (Jillian Fargey) a waitress/poet and social worker and her partner Henry (Andrew Wheeler) a Butoh dancer turned lawyer.
The pair was able to pull together enough money for a down payment on a house just before the market blasted into the stratosphere. However, soon the paint starts to chip on the giddy veneer of home ownership and Hilary and Henry find themselves faced with the stark reality that they are house rich and cash poor and in desperate need of a plan to keep their heads above water.
“For me it’s like Balzac. We’re living in a time where everything is just ridiculous,” said Griffin who is also an award-nominated actor. “So let’s bring all the ridiculous into the light and at least laugh at ourselves.”
In the case of this story Griffin didn’t have to go far for inspiration or insight. She and her partner Harvey Miller (a dancer turned lawyer) bought a house on the West Side in 2005 and soon discovered the true cost of owning a home.
“It came about through personal experience of being a life long renter and then finding myself as an owner, which was unusual,” said Griffin who admits the lead character of Hilary is drawn from Griffin’s own life in the arts and in social work. “Because of the real estate boon it put me in a place where I was no longer the downtrodden, I was one of the oppressors.”
Circling the struggling Hilary and Henry is a collection of four other characters that Spencer feels will land squarely with the audience.
“I think what Jenn has done is written something that is very humorous but also I feel we can connect to each one of these characters in this play because they are people you could meet on the street,” said Spencer. “The young people who can’t afford an apartment. The homeless man that is homeless because he has emotional problems. All of the characters are relatable and one can emphasize with them.”
Jillian Fargey, Darian, Roussy, Kim Ho and Andrew Wheeler star in House and Home, which runs from Jan. 11 to 25 at the Firehall Arts Centre. Photo: Reznek Creative
Griffin hopes the piece will not only entertain and challenge the punters but push other local creatives to stay closer to home when considering the stories they want to tell.
“The reason I have energy behind the material is I don’t think within our changing town we speak into ourselves. If theatre is intended to reflect who we are I don’t think it has been doing that. I think that we run away from it,” said Griffin. “Vancouver is like a human with low self esteem. It is looking to Toronto, what’s Toronto doing? What are they doing in New York? What are they doing in Europe, or how can I be more fancy. Let’s look at who we are.
“I believe we need to exist for ourselves,” added Griffin. “In existing for ourselves we can make better decisions. We can perhaps find more cohesion and harmony. The play speaks into blind spots that we all have.”
While it may seem a bit off-putting to laugh at such depressing topics Griffin has a bigger end game then just a quick joke or knowing eye roll.
“People go to a play about homelessness and they feel bad. They see a play about refugees and they cry and feel that’s good enough, that they don’t have to deal with it,” said Griffin. “I feel comedy is less likely to let people off the hook. In a twisted way it keeps you alive and you have to think and process as you are going.
It’s not a narrative where you can sleep through it,” added Griffin. “It’s not ending on a kumbaya, that’s not me, but it is hopefully ending on a sense of solidarity.”
Maybe so, but one thing is for sure, it will end with people heading back out onto the street with more fuel for the ubiquitous Vancouver conversation.