The Syringa Tree

for The New West

If you hadn’t noticed, the Junos took Calgary by storm over the weekend. The four-day event kicked off Thursday night at Olympic Plaza. But this isn’t an article about the Junos. It is a story about a little girl navigating the difficult emotional and moral terrain of South Africa during Apartheid…with the muffled bass of Bedouin Soundclash in the background. So if you weren’t one of the thousands of people downtown for the free Junos concert, then you may have been next door with me at Martha Cohen Theatre.

Junos or not, nothing could distract from Meg Roe’s commanding and compelling performance as Elizabeth Grace, a precocious, endearing, observant and hilarious six-year old. This actress of formidable talent and energy inhabits 22 characters on a very bare stage and proves that one person can do it all, and do it all very convincingly.

Among the many groups that make up the population in South Africa are at least a dozen African cultures, including Xhosa, Zulu and Sotho, as well as white Afrikaners descended from Dutch settlers, Jewish South Africans, and South Africans of English origin. Each has a unique accent and a very complicated role in the political social order.

Meg Roe populates the stage with each one of these characters with enthusiastic gusto and vigor. In fact, she switches so deftly from role to role that sometimes you have a hard time keeping up. What’s even more astonishing is that you can actually picture the black housekeeper Salamina on stage as well and as clearly as if she was standing there in the flesh. And as a conversation unravels between Elizabeth, her mother, the gardener, the brother’s nanny and her housekeeper, you kind of forget that there’s actually only one person on stage. One can’t help but think that it must be very entertaining in Roe’s dressing room.

It has only been two years since Alberta Theatre Projects opened this moving and ingenious play, an autobiography of playwright Pamela Gien’s life - clearly written out of her love for South Africa. Gien was the sole performer in the original production of the Syringa Tree and one really feels the sense of connection, sorrow and longing which she has for her country. Both Gien and Roe prove one of the play’s themes, “Free and Brave live inside your heart.”

Buoyed by the positive vibe on the way out the door, I conducted a very unofficial survey of a few fellow theatre-goers. One said seeing The Syringa Tree a second time only deepened her love and appreciation for the play; the first time around, you get the broad strokes; the second time allows you to pick up on the nuances and focus on the story.

Another said The Syringa Tree is the most powerful play that she has seen in a long time, and that with such an outstanding performance, she could see why they would choose to do it a second time.

Take that, Finger Eleven.