A lesson in perceptions

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This article was published 17/11/2016 (3426 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A high school teacher gets a bitter education when he is accused of an inappropriate relationship in 23.5 Hours, a drama by American playwright Carey Crim. Canadian actor Jonathan Watton portrays the central role of Tom Hodges, a man whose rewarding life as a teacher — not to mention his domestic life with wife Leigh (Amanda Lisman), son Nicholas (Tristan Carlucci) and family friends Bruce and Jayne (Arne MacPherson and Lisa Norton) — gets thrown for a loop with consequences that include a four-year incarceration.

The play, which opens tonight at the RMTC Warehouse, has been previously produced under the title Conviction. The newer title, Watton explains, refers to a period of time in a day when we might enjoy a sense of normalcy.

“It’s in that other 30 minutes that we deal with the doubt we have with each other and how can we truly be known, even by our partners,” Watton says. “That’s what she’s trying to get at in the title. It best encapsulates the theme of the play, some of which is about doubt.”

Of course, the quality of doubt can’t exist without a pre-existing condition of certainty. And Hodges, when first encountered, is certainly a good, committed high school teacher. Watton likens him to one of the favourite teachers anyone may have encountered in their lives.

“He’s like one of the teachers that, when you look back at high school, you think of someone who really stood out, who truly enjoyed their job and was passionate about teaching and inspiring kids,” he says. “I think of that interesting English/drama teacher in high school who really stayed with me. He really wanted us to learn and was passionate about it and was not afraid of doing things slightly out of the box.

“Tom is a little bit of a rebel in a way, in his teaching style and what he does, how he challenges the kids,” Watton says. “A lot of teachers walk down the hall and they’ll hear the Ramones or the Sex Pistols blasting from his classroom. Eyebrows are raised, but he’s trying to find ways to connect with kids. He’s trying to reach them in ways that he knows and ways that he can. The perception of him is completely changed once he’s been accused of a crime, which the playwright, for all intents and purposes, has left mostly ambiguous,” Watton adds. “She’s trying to take the focus off did-he-or-didn’t-he and more into what those questions raise.

“My parents were both teachers and teachers in the school system are dealing with a kind of scrutiny, about how we’re supposed to relate to each other and what’s appropriate and what isn’t?” Watton says.

“What happens when someone decides that the greater cause, which is the education of these students, supersedes the rules around which he or she is supposed to teach? I think the play examines that quite well.”

The character is a challenging one, but it’s a challenge the Toronto-based Watton enjoys taking on in Winnipeg. His acting career has frequently taken him here, on the stage (Richard III opposite William Hurt, The Blue Room) and in television roles. (Watton played sportscaster Ron McLean in the Winnipeg-lensed TV miniseries The Wrath of Grapes: The Don Cherry Story 2.)

“It’s my favourite place to work in the country, and I’m not just saying that,” he says. “I enjoy working here so much, as an artist and as a person. I always speak so highly of the place. I’m grateful and excited to be getting back here.”

randall.king@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @FreepKing