Local actors bring challenging story to life

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This article was published 09/09/2019 (2199 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For many in Manitoba, the concept of a baby box may be new and unfamiliar, but across the U.S. and Europe the practice of providing safe havens for unwanted or abandoned newborn children, oftentimes located on the side of a hospital or fire station, is longstanding. 

The baby box, sometimes known as a baby hatch or angel cradle, provides a safe way for a parent to anonymously turn a child over into the care of a health or government authority. In Canada, there are at least two baby box programs operating in Edmonton and Vancouver.

The challenging story of what happens after a baby is placed with a safe haven service is the subject of Sarasvàti Productions’ latest show, Baby Box, part of the annual FemFest theatre festival.

The 60-minute play written by Eva Barrie, Miranda Calderon, and Michelle Polak will have its world premiere in Winnipeg on Sept. 18. The play stars local actors Saira Rahman, Natasha Torres-Garner, and Victoria Hill in this contemporary story exploring how the lives of three women — a mother, a nurse, and woman wanting to adopt a child —are touched by the arrival of a newborn baby. The play, which employs poetry and dance in its telling, is choreographed by Ali Robson and directed by Hope McIntyre.

McIntyre, artistic director of Sarasvàti, said the script touches on a number of interesting themes in line with the vision of FemFest. 

“It tackles great content from three different female perspectives, which is unique and exciting,” McIntyre said. “It’s exploring this issue about how do we as a society, as a community, support women and children.”

The play will be staged at Asper Centre for Theatre and Film “in the round” with the audience encircling the stage. McIntyre said the minimalist set design directs the audience’s focus toward the actors — who never leave the performance area — the lyricism of their dialogue, gestural movement, and the musicality of their physical presence.

“It’s a really powerful, and interesting and engaging show, so I think it might be different than what people expect in theatre, but in that way I think something that’s definitely worth seeing and experiencing,” McIntyre said.

Fort Richmond’s Rahman plays the hopeful adoptive mother in this production and said she was drawn to the script for its metaphorical and poetic qualities, and the meaning in between the words.

“It’s lovely, brilliantly written, it’s poetic and it has not only the elements of dialogue, but movement,” she said. “It lends itself to more of an abstract way of presentation.

“That kind of play, where you have these different elements, it’s a wonderful challenge as an actor to blend them and to try and do justice to the character through dialect, movement, and song.”

In the role of the nurse is Fort Garry’s Torres-Garner. The contemporary dancer made the leap to stage acting and said she appreciates the multidisciplinary nature of Baby Box.

“What’s neat about how the play has been put together is that you never see the characters interact with each other and you have the characters shifting in and out of their real world characters, and their poetic storyteller perspective,” Torres-Garner said. “What I hope I can bring to the play is that I feel comfortable as a contemporary dancer jumping from the abstract to the not-so abstract.”

Baby Box opens on Sept. 18 at 8:30 p.m. and runs Sept. 19 and 20 at 8:30. For more information and tickets go to sarasvati.ca/product/baby-box