Meghan Greeley is a multi-award-winning player in local theatre as both an actress and writer. Among her accolades are: RCA’s Statoil Playwriting Competition, Sir Wilfred Grenfell’s University Medal for Theatre, the Andre Nobel Award for Acting, and the CBC Prize for Drama.
She also has a BFA in Theatre from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and is currently completing her MFA in Screenwriting from York University in Toronto. Impressed yet? Her last play, Kingdom, about a woman held captive in a room with a young girl, received rave, five-star reviews throughout Atlantic Canada.
Her new play, Hunger, toys once again with isolation and persecution. “In an isolated farmhouse during a period of ethnic cleansing, a couple attempts to perform an act of selflessness by hiding persecuted individuals behind the walls … as hunger reduces the protectors and the protected alike to a desperate state of savagery.”
Hunger is an exploration of the “tenuous relationship between selflessness and survival.” It asks tough questions like, What happens to altruism when the provider’s own need is threatened? What if the intrinsic benefit (in this case, human survival) becomes a marketable good?
White Rooster Theatre is putting it off. They’re a non-profit troupe founded by Ruth Lawrence & Sherry White, with a mandate to “produce and promote theatre works by women writers with a focus on Newfoundland women.”
A Modern Tale about Our Reaction to Fear and Fear Mongering
Lawrence says both she and Meghan see it as a modern story, that takes an uneasy look at our response to fear. “In particular, how it makes us view and treat others.” This is certainly something we’re all witnessing the spectrum of since the attack in Paris this weekend.
“Look at Facebook for proof; the way that the general public has lashed out, worldwide, at those fleeing inhumane treatment, is deeply troubling. But there’s no mystery behind it. For the past 10 years, we’ve been inundated with fear tactics in the world, and those using it to control us feel that they’ve been very successful.”
This play,as Ruth says, “asks us to dig deep and ask the difficult questions of ourselves. What are we capable of when pushed to extreme limits, in this case, starvation and protection of the persecuted.”
She says she hopes it makes people walk away with more answers about who we are as a society. “I know they are lofty goals! So perhaps it’s best to say that I hope it entertains while also sparking some discussion.”
Catch Hunger at the LSPU Hall this week. Wednesday the 18th through to Saturday the 21st, at 8pm, with a 2pm pay-what-you-can on Saturday as well. Tickets are $31, $25 Student/Senior.
