Preview
THE TRESTLE AT POPE LICK CREEK
Sage Theatre
Starring Adrienne Smook, Geoffrey Ewert and Tim Koetting
Written by Naomi Wallace
Directed by Kevin McKendrick
Runs March 17 to April 2
Pumphouse Theatres
Set during the Great Depression, Naomi Wallace’s The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek is named for the railway bridge that spans the dry bed of a creek. It’s a structure that is central to the action, and more importantly the characters, of Wallace’s popular 1998 play, which opens at Sage Theatre this Thursday.
When we first meet 16-year-old Dalton Chance (Geoffrey Ewert) and 18-year-old Pace Creagan (Adrienne Smook), they are contemplating "playing chicken" with the 153-ton 7:10 train across the trestle, something Pace claims to have already done. The conversation is a recurring one throughout the play and one which will irrevocably change their lives and those around them.
The teenagers are at the heart of a small collection of deeply damaged characters, including Dalton’s parents and a jailer, who have been beaten down by circumstance and are trying to find a way to live, to feel and to make their way out of the hopeless situation in which they find themselves. An award-winning contemporary poet and playwright from Kentucky, Wallace’s work often shows her willingness to approach difficult social issues such as race, poverty and labour dynamics, and The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek holds true to that pattern.
However, despite the extreme bleakness of the characters’ circumstances, there is still hope to be found.
Naomi Wallace weaves in these silver threads, keeps you caring for these people," says Smook.
Ewert agrees. "The darkness actually provides a contrast for the themes of love and hope," he says. Still, audiences shouldn’t come to this play looking for a piece of light theatre – there is no happy ending here. The hope in this play comes not from the fact that it all works out in the end – far from it – but rather from the characters themselves and from the changes they undergo as the story runs its course.
And it is the desire for change within the characters and the way the characters change each other that really lifts them out of their situation. Pace gets to know Dalton and sees that he wants more from life, which she can identify with, and their relationship changes him. It moves him out of stagnation, making something happen. It is the need for change – any change – that is really the grand theme of this play.
The play is beautifully written, but also very disturbing at times. The fractured narrative structure that plays with time and reality, with the boundary between life and death and with the "seen" and the "unseen," gives the play a sort of Grapes of Wrath-meets-David Lynch feel, which is only enhanced by some arresting sexual imagery.
In fact, the play is full of striking images that will stay with audiences long after they leave the theatre. Smook admits that one of the challenges of the production is to avoid playing the images but rather to play the scenes. "The play is about the relationships of the characters, the times they’re living in," adds Ewert.
To this end, director Kevin McKendrick encouraged the actors to flesh out their characters by bringing in music, maps or anything they felt added to their understanding of the play. "The more stuff you have cooking," says Smook, the more the audience is brought into the world you’re creating.
According to the actors, it is the characters’ hopes and the relationships between them that make this play relevant even though it is set 70 years ago. "They’re always looking to improve their circumstances. The human need to have love and hope is a common thread throughout history," says Ewert.
And Ewert and Smook haven’t found it hard to identify with the characters. These are young people who are wounded, who are afraid to reveal themselves; it is easier for them to wear a shield and not risk anything, but somehow Dalton and Pace manage to find each other and take an enormous emotional risk. It is the relationship between these two characters, and indeed among all the characters, that provides the momentum they need to effect change in their lives.
Together they find hope and the belief that they can make something happen, says Ewert. "When you change inside, the world around you changes." |
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