New play opening in Sudbury deals with residential schools

YES Theatre in Sudbury is preparing for its upcoming season, with rehearsals starting this week for its opening production.

The Canadian play ‘1939’ had its world premiere at the Stratford Festival in 2022.

Sudbury will be just the second time audiences will experience the story, which is set at a northern Ontario residential school.

Kelsey Tyson plays Beth, a student at a fictional residential school. Tyson said she’s trying to get a feel for the complicated character.

“It’s just something that’s important to see and that’s important part of our history that is often not looked at in this way, like the resiliency of these kids and the joy that they bring as people is incredible,” she said.

The play, co-written by Jani Lauzon and Kaitlyn Riordan, focuses on a group of Indigenous students at a residential school preparing for a visit from the reigning monarch.

Lauzon, an award-winning Indigenous artist, is directing the production and started table reads with the cast this week.

“To have the actors have some information about the research and the background of it,” she said.

“Hopefully by Saturday we’ll get up on our feet in the rehearsal hall and started bringing it to life in the space, putting it into the bodies of the actors and then in a couple of weeks the set will be starting to be built next week, and then everything will go up and just sort of come together hopefully.”

Richard Comeau of Chelmsford, is the only returning actor from the play’s Stratford debut.

Comeau said although the play is centred on a residential school, it’s not entirely heavy. However he hopes it starts conversations.

“I hope they come into the play with an open mind and an open heart,” Comeau said.

“It deals with a lot of horrible truths of Canadian history and I hope that when they leave the play, when they leave the theatre that they start to ask more questions and they educate themselves.”

YES Theatre’s production of 1939 opens March 15 and closes March 31.