For something that’s kept the human race going for some 200000 years having a baby is never as simple as it seems. This is particularly true in 2015 on an overpopulated planet stricken with wars climate woes and economic downturns.
That’s the territory explored by Verb Theatre’s latest production Lungs by British playwright Duncan Macmillan. The story follows a young educated socially conscious couple as they tease apart how and when and why and whether they should procreate. “The play mines the comedy of how those conversations lead you away from the answer you’re looking for” says Jamie Dunsdon who directs the show.
Although the story travels through time and space the script expressly forbids props changes in costume or scenery and mime — meaning that the audience has no cues other than the dialogue for where or when a given scene is taking place. “Stylistically this play is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s unique” says Dunsdon. “I think what the playwright is asking us to do is to trust his story. So our approach in this production is to keep it theatrically untheatrical.”
Sound hard? Well it certainly isn’t easy although plenty of theatre companies have taken on the task since the play premièred in 2011. “This is directorially a massive challenge” says Dunsdon. “I’m really working hard to trust the playwright trust these characters and trust the story.”
The stripped-down approach shouldn’t scare anyone off though. “I don’t think the audience is ever going to get confused” says Dunsdon explaining that the playwright does provide clues and context when it’s needed and the audience will have fun trying to figure everything out.
On the surface the characters (played by Anna Cummer and Kyle Jespersen) are also spare identified as only M and W in the script. Dunsdon is quick to explain however that these aren’t caricatures or archetypes. “They’re super specific people — they’re very human very three-dimensional very complex and complicated.”
While the particular concerns of these potential parents are rooted in our time (say the carbon footprint of a new child) Dunsdon says the couple’s discussions centre around whether they are the right people to have a child and whether it’s the right time — maybe not such modern ideas after all. “There’s the very personal questions about relationships and what having a child can do to your relationship… and I think that’s quite universal” says Dunsdon. “Those questions have been affecting couples since couples started having children.”
Fretting about global issues when choosing to have a child is a little more contemporary but it certainly isn’t confined to this decade or century; Dunsdon points out that some Cold War-era couples were similarly reluctant to have children as the end of the world seemed imminent. “I have to imagine that every generation has their own version of this story” she says. “In 2015 the questions we’re asking are slightly different but they come from the same place.”
Dunsdon therefore hopes that audiences walk away with some more empathy for parents of all eras as well as some questions about how we move forward in the world we live in right now. Lungs doesn’t provide any answers but she says it does push the boundaries of what theatre can do and what storytelling can look like onstage. Whether it’s the style or story that intrigues you Lungs promises to deliver on both.
Lungs runs February 5 to 14 at Motel (Arts Commons).
