Dandelion Theatre: An Orchid and Different Such Lilies and Lies, by D. Halpern. Starring Walter Borden and Scott Wentworth. Max Ackerman, director. Purple Sandcastle Theatre. Continues till November 23, 2025; tickets here.
In a small, unassuming theatre, on a small, unassuming stage, two big skills spin a narrative of loss, love, life, loss of life, youth, outdated age, and rather a lot that is available in between.
It helps that each actors are very long time veterans of stage and display. A local of Nova Scotia, Walter Borden’s CV consists of long run stints at Halifax’s Neptune Theatre Firm, and the Stratford Theatre Pageant, together with roles in Lexx TV sequence, and movies The Hexecutioners and Gerontophilia, amongst others. A multi-award winner, Borden can also be an Order of Canada recipient. Scott Wentworth is one other Stratford Pageant alumnus, with 28 seasons and lots of starring roles below his belt. The Tony and Laurence Olivier award nominated actor additionally performed roles in TV sequence like Orphan Black, The Murdoch Mysteries, and lots of others.
They’re recognized solely as Quantity One (Wentworth) and Quantity Two (Borden) within the script, as a result of why would it’s good to say the title of an outdated good friend out loud?
The Story
The premise is easy. Two outdated buddies, each 83 (Borden’s actual life age; Wentworth is 70), are driving within the desert. They discuss, and the dialog begins with reminiscing about individuals they knew in highschool, the place the 2 met at age 13.
From remembrances and banalities, there’s the inevitable second when the reality begins to spill out, together with recriminations, bickering, confessions, and secrets and techniques. A bag of medicine that features prescription drugs for his or her numerous illnesses, weed, edibles, cocaine and psychedelics fuels the dialogue.
Quantity Two’s obsessive about speaking about his late spouse Rose, who died years earlier than, and was the love of his life… or was she? Quantity One is given to philosophical speeches, and lamenting his destiny as somebody who’s by no means recognized real love… however is that basically true?
Simply once you’re questioning how two octogenarians would have such detailed recall of occasions that occurred again in highschool, or care a lot concerning the fates of their former classmates, the script flips expectations round, and extra truths come out.
Over the course of their dialog, it turns into increasingly clear that this can be a highway journey neither has any intention of coming back from.
Remarkably, playwright D. Halpern wrote the primary model of the work on the age of 17, impressed by a dialog with a good friend about how they’d wish to go once they died. The play was first mounted in 2019 on the Toronto and Atlantic Fringe Festivals.
Performances
The performances are clearly key to the play’s success, and each are devoid of a false observe. Each the humour and the poignant moments hit the mark with an viewers that appeared equally comprised of 20-somethings and people of us a lot nearer to the characters in age.
As Quantity One, Wentworth is the one seemingly extra wracked with doubts and regrets, given to his lengthy speeches and dramatic confessions. He performs him as a convincing late life loser — however one with one final bid for emotional relevance up his sleeve, his vulnerability alternating with bluster and sincerity.
As Quantity Two, Borden is much less loquacious, however says volumes in his stiff manner throughout Quantity One’s monologues, his skeptical appears to be like, and some alternative phrases.
“Generally, I believe I’m angrier now than I used to be once I was 13,” he acknowledges. He has his second the place the veneer cracks and the feelings come out. However, is it too late?
Collectively, they’re a convincing portrait of outdated buddies making an attempt to make sense of their lives and loves on the very finish of the road. You sympathize, although it’s clear they’re the authors of their very own fates, due to their solely too human frailties.
Stagecraft
The straightforward staging (by Shana Dharmaraj and Kevan Cress) features a white material backdrop to the small stage, the place the entrance finish of a automobile (ingeniously normal from skinny sheets of froth and numerous plastic accoutrements), takes up many of the area. They sit in clear lucite chairs that function the automobile seats. Along with lighting results (designed by Lidia Foote), it’s a surprisingly efficient evocation of a automobile within the extensive open areas of the desert.
Projections by Kevan Cress on the backdrop start the efficiency, depicting what we come to comprehend by means of the course of the story was the night time the 2 met some seven many years earlier. The younger group of buddies go skinny dipping with the notable exception of Quantity Two, who’s there to consolation Quantity One later when he’s left shivering and alone, after an encounter with the cops has despatched the remainder of the gang scurrying away.
The projections return at numerous factors within the story to depict scenes from reminiscence, and the desert sky, each day and night time. It provides a bigger dimension to the story because it unfolds, broadening the spatial perspective.
Music additionally flows out and in of the story, together with songs that talk to the feelings on stage, and instrumental bits that add ambiance.
It’s an object lesson in squeezing essentially the most out of minimal area and sources.
Ultimate Ideas
“No person sees a flower — actually — it’s so small it takes time — we haven’t time — and to see takes time, wish to have a good friend takes time.”
The play is framed by quotes from artist Georgia O’Keeffe, just like the one above that seems in a projection on the finish. It handily sums up the journey of the 2 characters and the viewers, who come alongside as spectators to their ultimate reckoning with the reality.
What’s all of it about, on the very finish? We are able to solely hope there’s somebody we are able to name an actual good friend.
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 many years, and a inventive writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
