By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Time is moving fast. Major decisions have to be made. Tension is rising rapidly and there are only two acts in which to resolve everything or at least find some sort of closure. This is what the eager theatre crowd of Burlington can anticipate from Timepiece, a thoughtful and suspenseful story from the creative mind of Vancouver-based playwright Kico Gonzalez-Risso. Directed by Maureen Dwyer and produced by Mark Collis, the play is set to be performed in February 2025 at Theatre Burlington’s Drama Centre, located at 2311 New Street.
The play was last performed in October 2023 at the Heritage Playhouse in British Columbia, but it has now travelled to Ontario to grace one of our local stages. Described by Dwyer as a dark comedy, the play concerns a family that consists of two seniors, their adult children, and their incompatible ideas for estate planning. The mother is ready to transition to a retirement facility, the adult children want to put all affairs in order, and the father just wants to be left in peace. It’s a tale of troubled family life and the crises that often come along with aging and changing dynamics within the family unit.
Auditions were held on Sunday, August 11, and Tuesday, August 13, with callbacks on Thursday, August 15, 2024. Theatre Burlington is now happy to announce their official cast, made up of local talent, who are all seasoned actors:
Tim Denis as Walter, the father. He is a watchmaker who is struggling to adjust to retirement. He is in his seventies and has issues with his memory and a sharp sense of humour.
Janine Heaven as Doris, the mother. She is Walter’s loyal and devoted wife. She is also in her seventies and wants to keep the peace in her family.
Tyler Brent as Patrick, Walter and Doris’s adult son. He is a lawyer in his forties.
Christine Marchetti as Karla, Walter and Doris’s adult daughter. She is a music therapist in her mid-thirties.
Dwyer agreed to speak about her plans and hopes for this thought-provoking production, as well as provide commentary for the future of the arts and the theatre industry in the district.
What can you tell me about the play “Timepiece,” and why has it been chosen for the Theatre Burlington stage?
Someone on the play’s reading committee had put this play forward and asked me, would I be interested in directing Timepiece? So I did read it and after a couple of reads it really kind of grew on me. It’s a really beautiful family piece. There are a lot of elements to it that people can relate to. Certainly, the complexity of the family dynamics, the sibling rivalry, the need for children to be get approval from their parents. Also, there is the element that’s never overtly said in the play, of Alzheimer’s creeping in and that’s the premise. The mother wants to downsize and get rid of the house because it’s too hard to keep up. But really, the basic issue is the father is having memory issues and no one’s really coming out and saying it.
Do you find that dark comedy is a tricky genre in the theatre world?
Yeah, and that it’s interesting because you have to get the tone right. You know, comedy itself is difficult because you have to get the timing. You have to get the actors that can do comedy. But then when you have that element of not crossing the line too much and [not] turning it into a caricature. And that’s where the serious part of it comes in. A lot of the comedy comes from Walter’s [the father’s] delivery. It’s his lines and the mother’s reaction to them. The kids would be almost the straight characters, I would say, in terms of how they respond and react. So you have to make sure you have somebody in there that really knows how to deliver those lines but not go over the top with them. And that’s directorial too.
How would you describe the current theatre scene in Burlington and in the Halton region?
It’s busy! There are a lot of theatre companies, you know. I started my community theatre career with the Players Guild in Hamilton and there was HTI (Hamilton Theatre Inc.) at the time. But now there’s so many companies. It’s really burgeoning. We’re right beside Drury Lane Theatre that does the musicals, you’ve got the professional shows coming into the Burlington Performing Arts Theatre. You’ve got the Oakville BurlOak theatre that does a lot of different things too, so there’s more competition than there used to be. Something that I know that pretty much every theatre company is trying to do is bring in younger people into their space. You have people that are working on creating the sets and doing lighting and doing those technical needs and directing and acting and producing. But you know when it’s the same people all the time, you have to regenerate that crowd.
Has your vision for the play evolved or altered in any way now that the actors have been cast?
In listening to so many actors and their interpretations, I was definitely awakened to moments and choices I had not realized. I have definitely walked away with a richer vision than when I began. Sometimes, as a director, you get a character in your head, and define it, but then you get people who audition and they say the line a certain way and you realize, “Ah ha, that’s the Alzheimer’s speaking,” or “That’s his/her pain of not being accepted in those words.” And you walk away with those gems.
What do you hope that your audience will take away from the play after they’ve seen it?
I hope that first of all, it will touch their hearts. They will feel this poignancy that I have felt reading it. They’ll enjoy the humor. There is also a plot element that’s a very suspenseful that sort of builds until the very last moment in the play, almost like a murder mystery. So that’s also very exciting, because hopefully that will leave them on the edge of their seats. And this sort of ending will be very satisfactory in a lot of ways. But I also hope that they can recognize and relate to what’s being said there, that they appreciate it and it touches their hearts. And still they’ll enjoy it. They’ll walk away and feel that they’ve really seen something special.
Tickets for Timepiece are on sale on the Theatre Burlington website. Regular adult tickets are available for $30.00 while seniors pay $27.00. The first showing will be on Friday, February 7, 2025.
