The stage production of Up to Low opens with subtlety—there’s no dimming of the house lights, no ominous warning from a disembodied voice asking everyone to “please turn off their cellphones.”
Instead, live musicians play folk songs and actors drift into the theatre greeting each other and sitting amongst the audience members as though the entire room is their stage—and really, it is.
“These are people telling a story. They’re right beside you, they’re your neighbours and they’re telling a story of your world,” producer Amanda West Lewis said.
By the time the play truly begins with a haunting rendition of the Irish folk song “Molly Brannigan,” the audience is already fully immersed.
Up to Low is based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Brian Doyle, who was a Carleton journalism student in the 50s. Wide-eyed teenager Tommy narrates the story of a summer he spends “up low” at his close-knit family’s Gatineau cabin.
It’s the summer he falls for Baby Bridget, a girl with eyes the “deep green of the Gatineau hills.”
It’s also the summer he learns to grapple with cruelty, redemption, and death.
The play balances humour and sadness in equal measure. It unfolds as a series of voyages and discoveries. These include a meandering car trip up to the cabin with drunken Uncle Frank at the wheel, and a moonlit voyage down the Gatineau River in search of Baby Bridget’s dying father, “Mean Hughie.”
Mean Hughie’s feats of cruelty are legendary among the residents of the small Gatineau community and a subject of communal gossip throughout the play, but nothing is quite as it seems in this warm and lived-in world. The weather turns from wild hail to sunny calm in a matter of moments and everyone is capable of change.
Instead of facing the action head-on, the audience sits on either side of a stage that runs right through the middle of the theatre. This staging creates a sense of movement that wouldn’t be possible in a more traditional theatre, especially during the scenes on the river and Uncle Frank’s arduous car ride.
This unusual setup is the product of a reading the actors performed at a bar in Brennan Hill last year, Lewis said. She said the staging lends itself well to the play’s deep sense of family and community.
“We loved it because people were in amongst the action—the actors could connect with the audience and we just thought it was really where it lived,” she explained.
Much like Uncle Frank’s road trip, the path to the stage has been a long one. Lewis and director Janet Irwin, who also adapted the book for the stage, started fundraising and writing grants back in 2012. Lewis said she had been aware of the book long before then. She said she’s thrilled the story has “taken on a new life.”
Brian Doyle himself said he thinks the stage production brought new dimension and depth to his novel.
“It’s like having a child and seeing your child grow,” he said. “You know it’s your kid, but it’s so much more.”
Up to Low will run at Arts Court Theatre until June 6.
