Ayla Stephen’s Treehugger is one part humorous tirade against the evils of globalization and the rapid urban development occurring in Calgary and one part touching examination of loss. The unwitting recipient of Angela’s rant, apart from the small attentive audience, is a multicoloured squirrel that sits perched in the window of Angela’s makeshift tree house. The fort sits in an old elm tree in the backyard of her mother’s suburban home. It’s not close to where the development is occurring, admits Angela, but at least her mother can easily provide Starbucks’ grande mocha low-fat lattes and McDonald’s meals when Angela is hungry.

It’s not the first time we’ve met Angela, played by Calgary-born Stephen. She first made an appearance in Stephen’s play This is our Solar System, for which she won outstanding female actor at the One Act Festival in March 2008. Angela was only 10 years old in This is our Solar System, but now she is a young woman, struggling to come to terms with the loss of her lover who died from cancer three months earlier. Angela believes it is the rapid urbanization, the abundance of multinational corporations and the tons of waste and chemicals these companies produce that were responsible for the illness — a belief instilled by her deceased lover’s staunch environmentalism.

What we soon find, however, is that Angela is unable to escape the very globalization and urbanization that she protests, no matter how long she stays cooped up in her mother’s old elm tree. She can’t cook for herself in the tree fort and so, ironically, she relies on her mother to bring meals from McDonald’s. She also washes her face and hands with bottled water. In the end, as she complains in a particularly amusing rant, she realizes that she doesn’t want to completely stop drinking Starbucks and likes eating at Wendy’s and McDonald’s once in awhile.

“I find a lot of people have these feelings about development,” says Stephen. “We all want the convenience, but we also want to do better things. I’m definitely poking fun at this, but in a lighthearted way, because it’s something we all do.”

“I like eating at Wendy’s every once in awhile,” she admits, “but I do try to eat organically and go to local places whenever they are available.”

While Angela’s zealous tirade resulted in more than a few chuckles from the audience, by the end she proves she is more than just a good laugh. A bluebird, the colour of her lover’s eyes, arrives at the tree house. Angela vents her pent-up frustrations and emotions on the bird, which she believes is her girlfriend. As the days pass, we see her character grow until she finally comes to terms with the loss of her loved one. She realizes that her protest was largely influenced by grief, and though she is still influenced by her deceased lover, she decides she must get on with her life.