Queen of Kensington a Winnipeg fan… still

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/02/2015 (4253 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ONE of the thematic threads that runs through Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is the regret that arises from paths not taken.

In the Christopher Durang comedy, Fiona Reid, one of Canadian theatre’s leading ladies, plays Sonia, who is bitter that she has made poor decisions that has left her feeling unfulfilled. Reid, 63, can easily locate those emotions, the second-guessing that can keep you awake at night.

“I had huge opportunities that I eschewed,” she says, prior to rehearsals at Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre this week. “I had the world given to me on a platter in terms of King of Kensington.”

For three years in the mid ’70s she played Cathy, the wife of a convenience store owner (Al Waxman) on the popular CBC television comedy series. It made her a national star, but Reid surprised everyone by turning down a contract extension and leaving after three seasons to concentrate on a stage career that has stretched over 35 years and to virtually every mainstage in the country.

“I sometimes look back at all the things I was offered, including another sitcom, and think, ‘You’re a complete idiot,’” she says, with a shake of her head. “I have learned that regret is poisonous. It becomes increasingly challenging the older one gets to live in the present moment and to accept your past. I look for reasons to be grateful every day.”

It is one of the occupational hazards of getting into the heads of her characters that conflicted feelings of her own get stirred up.

“I thought I wouldn’t have been taken seriously if I had pursued all the advantages that were offered in television,” says the Toronto-based performer, who was born in England. “I think that’s wrong now. You can control your destiny more than I thought at the time. I’ve had a wonderful time in theatre.”

It’s good to see her back at RMTC, where she has performed brilliantly in such productions as Death and the Maiden, Arcadia and Hay Fever.

The last time she was here to appear in the feelgood comedy Calendar Girls in 2011, she was assaulted in Osborne Village. The member of the Order of Canada was standing at a bus stop carrying her groceries when a woman suddenly confronted her on the street at noon hour.

“She says, ‘Get the f— out of here,’ and threw my groceries on the ground,’” Reid says. “Then she kicked me with this heavy boot right in the face.”

A man in a passing car shouted at her attacker to stop, while Reid commandeered a transit bus in search of help.

“That same woman went to the passenger side of the car and plowed him in the face,” says the mother of two 20-something children. “He had blood coming down his face. I had a bruised lip and bruising around my eye. I felt he got the worst of it.”

A woman was arrested and was sentenced to jail time, although the left-leaning actress wonders what good time behind bars would do for the perpetrator.

“What was so weird was as I walked to the bus stop, I saw this woman join her two friends (in the bus shelter),” Reid says. “I thought ‘What majesty that woman has. She walks with such pride.’ She was definitely on some substance, but I don’t know what.”

Reid has been performing at RMTC since she debuted in The Cherry Orchard in 1974, when she met her future husband, Mac Thomas, in the theatre’s carpentry department. The fact that she is back suggests she doesn’t bear any ill will against the city.

“I have a great fondness for Winnipeg, and I love winter.”

 

— Kevin Prokosh