MORRISBURG – Shakespeare probably got it right, when it comes to romance. “The course of true love never did run smooth…” he wrote, and it is too often true.
However, in the wonderful production currently on stage at Upper Canada Playhouse, Kristen DaSilva’s ‘Sugar Road,’ audiences will find themselves really hoping that if affairs of the heart may occasionally prove rocky, surely, in the end, love has to triumph.
‘Sugar Road’ is a play all about love: lost love, misunderstood love, hilarious love, hopeful love, playing out not in sunny Verona, or the bistros of Paris, but in a run-down, decrepit amusement park in rural Ontario. That is part of the incredible appeal of this Playhouse production: these are real people, living in the real world, and dealing with real issues. And we are rooting for them all the way.
Da Silva’s play is told in a series of vignettes, sometimes set 12 years ago, sometimes set in present day. Young Hannah Taylor has inherited Sugar Road amusement park from a mother who drifted into alcohol when her one true love never came back. Hannah is desperately trying to keep this park going; a last ditch solution to her financial woes is to stage a special concert with one of country music’s up and coming stars. In this effort she is assisted by handyman Ray Bishop, himself a one-time roadie who ended up at Sugar Road years ago, after an accident. She will also have the help of her “best friend in the world,” the hilariously unfiltered Caroline Dawn. And, strangely enough, given his super star status, his ability to fill huge stadiums with fans, the country singer Jesse Emberley has unexpectedly agreed to put on a concert in this little backwater park.
The characters in this production are all memorable, brought splendidly to life by a very strong cast, and by Donnie Bowes’ sensitive direction and staging.
Caroline Dawn, played by AnnaMarie Lea, is absolutely one-of-a-kind. Opinionated, definitely not shy and retiring, she grabs at life with gusto. She doesn’t just ‘love’ singer Jesse Emberley, super star, she has to adore him, even if it means making huge signs for his concert with “I’m your Rhinestone Lover” and providing way too much personal information. (She later has a slapstick pre-concert encounter with a sleeping bag which nearly brought down the house.) Yet Caroline also cares deeply for Hannah: it worries her how closed off Hannah is, her emotions firmly locked down. (“Things must be pretty depressing at your house if even the cat ran off.”) Eventually, Caroline plans to do something about that.
Ray Bishop, with his own rustic sense of humour, also loves Hannah, and has always tried to protect her. Brian Young plays a kind of small town sage, who tells Hannah ‘You don’t allow yourself to cry. You keep your sorrow in.” At the same time, he can also leave the audience roaring with laughter when he draws on his past as a roadie for the great country music star, Rhett. “He was always mobbed by women. Never happened to me. The one or two who noticed me formed an orderly line.” Ray knows Hannah’s past, he knows why she distrusts most men, and he, like Caroline, intends to find a way to do something about it.
Erin McKinnon’s Hannah has heavy responsibilities on her shoulders. Her mother was obsessed by a ‘singin’, travellin’ man’ who made grand promises, and never came back. Now Hannah refuses to be dazzled by sweet talk and by footloose musicians – even by the one who entered her life one starry night, 12 years ago, and has never quite vanished from her heart. She is brave, determined – and also, perhaps, vulnerable.
Singer Kevin Aichele is a delightful Jesse Emberley. His Jesse is on the verge of becoming a super star “but sometimes I look at the ones who made it, and it scares me. Living your life in a fish bowl.” However, we learn that there is a reason he immediately agreed to perform at Sugar Road, a reason why he is coming back to a place and to a girl he knew 12 years ago. However that path back won’t be easy. The formidable team of Caroline and Ray won’t let him hurt their Hannah. And Hannah herself is determined to keep her distance: she will not be easily swayed… but then, it turns out, neither will Jesse. ‘Sugar Road,’ on stage at Upper Canada Playhouse, is a show filled with laughter, possessed of a special country magic and peopled with characters we definitely care about. After all, don’t we all collectively cross our fingers when Ray finally asks Jesse, “Are you here for the 4,000 people? Or just the one?” What a great evening of theatre.
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