Jenny Wright in Fall on Your Knees, ‘intense, beautiful story’

Jenny Wright, a Niagara-on-the-Lake resident and Shaw Festival actor, has appeared as Mercedes Piper in the world premier of Fall On Your Knees.

“It’s such a gift to work on a new piece of theatre,” said Wright.

Based on the novel of the same name by Ann-Marie MacDonald, the play follows four generations of the Piper family, and is set on Cape Breton Island. Wright admits the story is “pretty intense, with some very dark material. But it is also a beautiful story. It is about a family, their dreams, secrets and memories,” said Wright. “It’s a Canadian story. It’s Cape Breton. We are telling the audience this story and it’s a rough ride; it’s a beautiful ride and incredibly moving, but also we have to take care of the audience,” said Wright as she made a large hug gesture with her arms. The audience members “go on a journey with us. I try to stay true to the words, and say them truthfully and imagine what it would be to deal with trauma. For the first two weeks of rehearsal, we spent a lot of time around the table really taking care of each other, because each person comes to the table with their own experiences and baggage,” she said.

Friends Steffanie Bjorgan and Heather Davis did not have any qualms in making the drive from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Toronto to see Fall On Your Knees recently. “It touches on so many sensitive and controversial things in family, life, and society as a whole,” said Bjorgan. “I appreciated the nuanced way it did so without saying the words or showing the things that could be quite triggering to some, and yet the messages came across loud and clear.”

For Davis, “the message is that families are hard to understand from the outside, and people will always try to protect those they love, even if they don’t deserve it.”

As for feedback from an audience, Wright said, “the experience with the first audience was amazing because you hear them respond and laugh because of Hannah Moscovitch’s amazing writing. But the silence in the theatre was striking to me. You could hear a pin drop. Profound. The silence feels almost kind of sacred. Because you’re sharing, and they’re sharing.”

The play is presented in two parts, and each part is a full-length play. Part One: Family Tree, and Part Two: The Diary are directed by Alisa Palmer, MacDonald’s wife, and written by Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch.

The play can be viewed on the same day or over two different days. “It’s an unusual idea,” said Wright. “Originally 10 years ago when we were work-shopping this piece it was in three parts. MacDonald is also a playwright, and when she wrote the novel she envisioned it almost like a piece of theatre.”

Davis recommends seeing “both Part One and Part Two in the same day so you can discuss it between shows, and not lose momentum or connection.”

For Wright, “performing a play over two parts is incredibly demanding.” She admits to being “spoiled at Shaw because we have long rehearsal periods where, for every minute on the stage, we rehearse for an hour. Not the case with this,” she said. “Not only were we creating this piece of theatre, we were also creating the style of it. The material is difficult, the time frame is difficult and the volume is difficult.”

Preparing for the role of Mercedes involved “finding the language of Cape Breton,” said Wright, who spent hours listening to Frig off, Fiona, an event featuring Newfoundlander Ron James, Men of the Deeps, and The Barra MacNeils, among others. “This play has that East Coast vibe, vitality and humour.”

Wright, who hails from Swift Current, Sask., studied in Montreal and started doing community theatre for fun. In short order, she was “doing professional gigs, found an agent, then landed at the Shaw as an apprentice at 29 years old.”

Deborah Hay, also a Shaw Festival actor, joins Wright in Fall On Your Knees as Frances Piper.

Fall On Your Knees closed in Toronto on Feb. 5. Cast and crew flew to Neptune Theatre in Halifax until March 5, followed by a three-week run at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

The closest venue to see this epic play is in London, Ont., March 29 to April 2. Both Davis and Bjorgan emphatically agree a trip to the Grand Theatre would be well worth it. “Make the drive and share the experience with friends who also love to read and experience theatre,” said Davis.

Audience members can also expect to see Wright in the Shaw Festival productions of The Game of Love and Chance and Blithe Spirit. Rehearsal starts mid April, allowing the actor “a week to catch my breath.”

“What I love about this is working with other humans and telling stories about other humans,” said Wright. “Storytelling is primal — a human need, and I love it. It’s a way to understand the human condition and human problems and joys and failures, and everything about being a human.”