The upcoming play, The Valley, by Victoria based playwright Joan MacLeod, uses its characters as an outlet to comment on contemporary social issues including student depression and police brutality.
“If you look at the subject matter in most of my plays, a lot of them are rooted in social justice issues," said MacLeod. “The Valley very much fits that. At the end of the day, I think all my plays first and foremost follow the lens of family to look at those things.”
The plot of The Valley centres on the intertwining lives of a Vancouver cop, his wife, a college dropout and his mother. With a character-driven play such as this, MacLeod has produced a work which she hopes will elevate the audience's level of connection with its characters while investigating their interactions at home. Themes such as the balance between public and private are explored as we see how people are brought together or broken apart.
MacLeod, who is the winner of the Siminovitch Prize and the Governor General’s Award, believes that characters do the heavy-lifting of storytelling for her. “Even with the multi-character plays, I start by writing monologues and let the characters figure out the story for me. Again it’s not intentional, it’s how it goes with the multi-character plays. There isn’t a lead, they all have a lot to do.”
Although she focuses on characters, MacLeod does not dismiss the impact of plot. “At the end of the day we go to the theatre for a great story. Plot is really important, so although my process is character-driven, I’ve worked hard to find a really strong dramatic arc and carve a good plot out of that.”
One of the overarching themes that the play explores is depression in undergraduate students. As a professor in the University of Victoria’s writing department, this is a topic of great relevance to MacLeod. She acutely understands these struggles and knows how often they can lead to students dropping out of school.
MacLeod, who studied creative writing at UBC, credits her education as something vital to helping her find her writing style.
“When I was at UBC I didn’t study playwriting, I wanted to write novels. But I first started publishing in poetry. Like a lot of people that go into fiction, just by fluke I fell into theatre. When the actor performed my poem out loud, in that moment, I realized my voice was meant to be heard. I emerged from UBC with a voice.”
MacLeod especially encourages university students to see the production of The Valley, believing that its relevance to the issues they might be experiencing will thoroughly resonate.
The Valley will be playing at the Arts Club Theatre Company from April 7 to May 7. Tickets are available online, starting at $29.