How It Works, a play written by Daniel MacIvor, opened in Ottawa at The Gladstone in the centre of Little Italy Oct. 5.
The night put patrons on an emotional roller-coaster ride through the tribulations of Brooke, a teenager with a drug abuse problem and an uncanny family situation.
The play, presented by Plosion Productions, is also an educative experience.
With the help of an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, $790 was raised, allowing 82 tickets to be distributed to organizations helping at-risk youth such as Operation Come Home and the Youth Services Bureau.
David Whiteley, co-artistic director of Plosion Productions and plays the father of Brooke in the play, explains what the heart of the play is about.
“[How It Works] centres around a fairly recently divorced couple still feeling the stings of not being in a space where they can talk to each other,” Whiteley said.
Whiteley said the play also focuses on the “unsurprising sense of guilt of a daughter who feels that her own problems are at least a source contributing to the family breaking up.”
Director Stewart Matthews was asked to join the existing cast and to bring his vision to MacIvor’s writing.
“They asked me because they wanted something a little more edgy, without big sets or anything,” he said.
“I just like the idea of How It Works and translating it into more than just the play.”
The staging of the play only features a few elements.
The set is merely composed of three chairs, a table, a door and walls that are moved between each scene.
Matthews said that this simplicity benefits the play.
“You get multiple scenes [and] multiple locations without having to do huge, massive set changes.”
Stage manager Jess Preece gives an apt description of How It Works:
“I find it really shows the vastness of humanity, because there are times where [you think] ‘Oh, that sucks’ and then there are times where it is absolutely so pleasurable.”
Balancing humourous situations between the characters and monologues on more burdensome subjects, How It Works gives the audience time to reflect about their personal lives.
Hannah Kaya played Brooke, and when she read the script, she said she “totally fell in love with it.”
“The whole storytelling, everything about it is just really good,” she said.
Whiteley said he worried describing the play as a comedy would mislead people.
“There is a lot of laughter to it, and the laughter is really anchored in the reality of the people and their situations,” he said.
Despite the comedic intentions, Whiteley’s objective is to convey daily realities without being pedantic.
“The point of the play is not to lecture at the audience . . . it’s about just sharing human experience in a very theatrical, very entertaining, often very comic way.”
The audience’s laughter during opening night seemed to agree with this perspective.
