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A Might-y play about time and space

A young girl’s ambition in math and science shapes John Mighton’s play The Little Years being put on by The Emerald Pig Theatrical Society in Maple Ridge.
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Contributed John Nolan plays both Mr. Castle and Mr. York in the Emerald Pig Theatrical Society’s upcoming production of The Little Years by John Mighton.

An inspirational story about a young girl who loves math and science will be coming to the stage in Maple Ridge.

The Emerald Pig Theatrical Society will be performing John Mighton’s The Little Years at the Open Door Church Theatre before entering it into the Fraser Valley Zone Festival in White Rock.

The story follows the life of a 14-year-old girl in 1957 as she enters her 60s at the end of the play.

Kate is interested in math and science but in the 1950s that isn’t the mold that she is expected to fit into.

Instead the principal of her school advises her mother to put her into a vocational school to become a secretary.

“So the play explores the themes about what happens with unrequited dreams and gender inequity and also just the ways in which we can inspire others in unexpected ways,” said director Sharon Malone with Emerald Pig.

Malone first heard of John Mighton while watching an interview with him on the CBC.

“I was interested in the interview because of the math. And in the course of the interview he spoke about how he had been a playwright and how he had written plays and I thought, oh wow., that’s an interesting connection,” she said.

Malone started exploring his work and felt drawn to this play.

“There’s a circularity to the play in terms that it comes back around again at the end in a very hopeful way,” explained Malone.

“But there is also the idea of time as a linear construct that the lead character Kate has very non-linear ways of thinking. So there’s a disconnect there between her world and the world that she lives in,” she continued.

The themes of time in the story really appeal to Malone.

“Time is almost a character in itself in the play,” said Malone.

“As you go through the play you think what is time and how are we each experiencing time differently, at our own pace,” she explained.

One of the things Kate says in the play is that time goes by itself, an idea Malone finds interesting, that somehow we are all here in the world at the same time, but also not.

There is also the character of Roger who is an artist with a desire to become famous, to have his work recognized and achieve a sort of immortality.

Kate asks him, if you put one of your paintings on a rocket ship, send it out to space and it travels for two years in space time and a thousand years in earth time, then how long has your painting lasted?

“It’s all a matter of perspective. I think we each experience time and our own mortality and immortality in different ways,” said Malone.

She is hoping that people who see the play go away thinking about how they inspire other people and what in their own lives will be remembered when they are gone.

She wants the audience to ask themselves what is time about, what is their place in time, how do we affect the future and how do others from the past affect us now, in the present and in our own future?

As a big fan of math and science the director also hopes the play encourages young people to study the topics and to enjoy them.

“So often there is this anxiety about math, that is also explored in the play. The playwright talks about in his own experience that he suffered from this math anxiety. Which is created by teachers in some way and parents, who also have a math anxiety, so they perpetuate that in their children and their students,” said Malone.

She wants to see parents, grandparents and teachers to help children find the fun in math and science, to help them think outside the box, think creatively about the future and make the planet a better place to live.

Showtime

The Little Years runs May 18, 19 and 20 at 8 p.m. at the Open Door Church Theatre, 11391 Dartford St. in Maple Ridge.

Tickets are $20-$25.

For more information go to emeraldpig.ca.

The Fraser Valley Zone Festival rund May 21-27 at White Rock Players’ Club, 1532 Johnston Rd. in White Rock.

The performance of the Emerald Pig Theatrical Society’s The Little Years will take place on May 22.

For tickets to this performance call 604-536-7535 or go to whiterockplayers.ca.



Colleen Flanagan

About the Author: Colleen Flanagan

I got my start with Black Press Media in 2003 as a photojournalist.
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