Holy questions
April 7, 2007
Theatre professor takes the stage in Grace
When Trinity Western University Theatre department chair Angela Konrad first read the script for Grace, now playing at Pacific Theatre in Vancouver, she knew she wanted to direct it.
“I realized it is my favourite sort of play to see as a patron because it grapples with some complex and difficult questions in a way that is incredibly thought-provoking, but I had never directed a play like this,” said Konrad. “I felt I needed to face that inconsistency.”
At the core of Grace is a question posed by playwright Craig Wright: “If the best thing that ever happened to you is the worst thing to happen to someone else, is that grace?”
The play opens with a gunshot and then rewinds, taking the audience back a number of months to see how the characters got to that point. In the story, a Christian couple, Steve (Craig Erickson) and Sarah (Alexa Devine), moves to Florida from the Midwest to pursue Steve’s dream: creating a gospel hotel chain. Contrasted by their disfigured next-door neighbour Sam (Kerry van der Griend) and the Holocaust-surviving insect-exterminator Karl (Ducan Fraser), the young couple struggles with the line between fundamentalism and sincere faith.
For Konrad, one of the privileges of working on this show was being able to direct her own faculty. “I loved working with Craig Erickson, who plays Steve in this play and who teaches part-time in the theatre department,” said Konrad. “I have never seen any actor work so hard. His dedication and commitment are unwavering.”
Erickson’s hard work pays off as he makes his character both deeply disturbed and still sympathetic. Being a Christian, his character attempts to work out the “five spiritual principles” and the “seed/harvest paradigm.” The audience is left to wonder if they could keep their faith as long as he does, and follow it so whole-heartedly.
“[Grace is] dark and harsh in ways that not everyone would appreciate,” explained Konrad. “But the value in the work is the questions it raises, the reflections of ourselves in the characters, the glimpses of grace in unexpected places, and the opportunity we have to learn from others’ mistakes.”
The play may be too much for some students to handle. Its honest portrayal of twisted fundamentalism can hit close to home, and the dark places it visits can be hard to handle.
“If your idea of theatre is to have a fun evening with a few laughs and a nice moral at the end, don’t go to Grace,” said Konrad. “If you want to be challenged and provoked and leave the theatre arguing with your friends, this show might be for you.”
Grace runs until
April 14, at Pacific Theatre.
For more information on Grace
or to buy tickets, visit
www.pacifictheatre.org
or call the box office at
604-731-5518.
Now you go...
Got something to say?