Adult love story asks tough questions about violence
It’s a hot-button topic right now particularly with the recent NHL playoff frenzy: head shots and concussions. The role of enforcers. Ultimately the culture of violence in hockey. Where do you draw the line? And more importantly what do you teach your kids when they start playing minor hockey? All those heavy questions are tackled in a play that seemingly starts out as a romantic comedy between two single parents.
Set on the bleachers of an old hockey rink in a small town Donna and Teddy are single parents watching their sons play hockey. And that’s their connection. They start talking. They get to know each other. Something empty in both of their lives starts to get filled in their shared companionship and they bond together through their loneliness.
“It’s a really interesting journey as to how adults — people who have been in relationships single parents — how they sort of approach the dating world in a sense” says director Mike Griffin. “There’s something about the relationship that’s got a flavour of romance but there’s also so much more. And I’m just really intrigued by the underbelly of the past of both of these parents’ lives and what they’ve gone through.”
It’s these hardships and struggles of Donna and Teddy’s pasts that keep Hockey Mom Hockey Dad from being a basic love story. It’s where the debate of sports violence comes up — the ramifications off the rink and whether their kids should be learning and taking part in it at such a young age.
“The dichotomy in Canadian society is a double standard” says Cheryl Faye Olson who plays Donna. “In the show we’ve got kids that are fighting each other in minor hockey. And us Canadians are such peacekeepers off the ice but in the show and in hockey we do see pro-violence happening. I guess I’m very drawn to that.”
Griffin grew up playing football and saw the violence and aggression as a safe release in a controlled environment.
“The challenge is looking at what are we trying to say with this play” he says.
But there is a thin line.
“Teddy thinks it’s something that should be supported and Donna cringes when it occurs. She cringes when her son skates into the corners and he’s going to get hurt” says Griffin.
These questions saddled alongside a budding love story are what Griffin and Olson hope will draw a wide variety of audiences. Men women parents couples. Hockey fans and non-hockey fans. Theatre geeks and those completely unacquainted. There’s no need to know the shop-talk of hockey. In a way Donna is a stand-in for anyone that isn’t a sports fanatic.
“My husband is very very into hockey so I’ve had to kind of learn to like it” laughs Olson who says it helped her relate to her character. “Donna doesn’t really have a strong understanding of hockey and was kind of forced into it because her child is playing hockey and she has to learn.”
And it was Olson’s husband Frazer Andrews who brought the play to the team in the first place. Doubling as the set and lighting designer and dramaturge Andrews is currently writing his thesis on the Canadian hockey drama serving as an endless supply of knowledge insight and specific details for the play.
“I think it’s the more research that you have in your back pocket the better it is for the show itself” says Griffin. “But it obviously helps that everyone on our cast is definitely a hockey enthusiast.”
