Glen Hartle
Shawville January 21, 2023
Oops, they did it again. The Pontiac Community Players were on stage at the Pontiac High School auditorium and they nailed it. In fact, they may have just served notice that they are hitting their stride and we had better keep our calendars handy.
At play and on display was their interpretation of Hilda’s Yard, a piece by Canadian playwright Norm Foster running from January 18 – 21, and it was clear that word of mouth had an uncredited role in things. The final showing on Saturday had near-traffic-jams in the streets of town and the auditorium was filling quickly a full 30 minutes before curtain.
Not all period pieces work. Some perhaps because of content that is no longer current with the times. Some perhaps because the delivery isn’t captivating enough for these days of shorter attention spans.
And some period pieces work because of the brilliance of both content and delivery. Thus is was with Hilda’s Yard, and director Valerie Twolan-Graham’s troupe owned the stage and audience over four acts of entertainment which had everyone laughing and believing it was 1956 all over again.
A play written with strong female parts requires leads equal to the task and Deb Stephens, Tanya Maguire and Janice Hodgins were that and more. Stephens, as title character Hilda, could easily have been mistaken for the brilliant Jean Stapleton in All In The Family, a TV show from the 70s, endearing us to that every-woman, every-mother, every-sister, every-neighbour – Edith Bunker. She brought a nuanced performance to the role that was as captivating as it was relatable.
Maguire’s sassy delivery as Hilda’s daughter, Janey, was a joy and you could feel her channelling the 50’s cultural shift. Her version of gum-chewing, nail-filing “no-longer-a-teenager-but-still-entitled” Janey could fit easily into every codex of parental “How To”.
Hodgins’ turn as customer-become-musician/girlfriend Bobbi was sharp and she handled the “detached-outsider suddenly at the table” such that we were instantly sympathetic to her cause and cringing with her at the family antics surrounding her.
The male roles generally rounded out Hilda’s story and Greg Graham, Ken Drummond and Brodie Telford stepped up to bring them to life.
Graham, playing Hilda’s husband, Sam, brought the every-man and every-dad to perfect balance where his delights, foibles and struggles were made acutely real through Graham’s emotive performance.
The task of portraying the somewhat under-inspiring son, Gary, went to Drummond and he played the part so well that by play’s end the audience was practically on stage with Hilda encouraging Gary to move back out of the house. It’s hard to believe Drummond is new to the scene and now easy to believe he’ll be back.
Rounding out the on-stage cast was Brodie Telford, playing Beverly – whose presence in the play acts as a pseudo-antagonist / sidekick / love-interest / protagonist mashup. That’s a large gamut to embrace and Telford handled it deftly leaving Hilda’s parting summary of him in a family toast as an appropriate ode: “..to Beverly, who has […] given us what every family needs: a compassionate thug who can pull some strings.”
Attending the production as a whole was to witness teamwork at its finest. Helping Twolan-Graham in support were: Stage Manager Deb White and her team of Marguerite Carmichael and Carole Schmidt-Valin; Sound & Lighting Manager Aggie Bertrand; Set Designer & Costume Assist William Bastien; Set Constructors William Bastien, Chris Graham, Deb White and Yves Perreault; Graphic Designer Vanessa Dubeau and Front-of-Housers Sydney Côté, Leona Lalonde and Rick Valin.
The overall effect was a roundly wonderful piece of Canadiana brought to life via an amazingly talented, dedicated and committed community group at a venue where fostering and sponsoring creativity is key for this and generations to come.
A standing ovation was the only ending possible.
