DIANA (I Knew You When We Were Fourteen) is a play about two young people, Diana and Michael, who went to school together until suddenly, and very mysteriously, Diana goes missing in their early years of high school. Though they never really spoke, and would never be considered friends, Michael becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. Many years later, he travels from his home in New Brunswick to Toronto to find her. Throughout the play, we learn more about Diana, who is initially presented as an enigma but is realized to be a complicated, multidimensional woman. Her story is one about overcoming obstacles, and we learn along the way that Michael’s may be as well.
DIANA is a very intimate setting featuring only two actors, Alexa and her co-writer, co-producer, and real-life partner Ian Groff. They primarily portrayed Diana and Michael respectively, but also other characters, visually signaling to the audience when they were taking on a new story. The production featured a lot of lights, music, and movement. While all of these were crucial to the storytelling, the movement was a particularly important aspect of this play, and Alexa’s past experiences have seemingly shaped her interest in this way of doing theatre.
Alexa, originally from Kitchener, Ontario, was always involved in the arts; first as a dancer, and then as a theatre performer in high school. In University, she majored in Political Science-wanting to be a lawyer-and she minored in Theatre. Theatre ultimately proved to be her calling and she attended theatre school following her graduation from Carleton. It was here that she discovered physical theatre, a technique formally called Lecoq. She says: “it was in this style that I was able to fuse dance and theatre,” and if anyone has seen physical theatre, you would understand. The play was about an hour long and not even halfway through, you could see the sweat on their faces, their clothes and their hair. It was physically taxing and yet their voices remained so steady and they showed no little signs of exertion. Physical theatre is truly a workout on stage and in DIANA, they applied it beautifully. Alexa talked about the notion of movement phrase; rather than resort to dialogue, they would do something: “when it got too wordy, we would just add a little something.” She explained this by shaking her upper body a little bit and brushing her shoulder as show of discomfort. These smaller examples are packaged alongside the lifts, the dancing and the running that is featured throughout the show.
Choosing this performance style seemed natural to Alexa. The play is inspired by Michael Ondaatje’s poem “Elimination Dance” which lists several different people and scenarios. She explains: “as we read it, it felt like it should be a visual dynamic,” and upon reading it, I understand why. The poem presents endless opportunities for creativity, and Alexa and Ian took aspects of the piece that read as completely random on paper, and seamlessly created and weaved stories together. From the title, to singers spitting on people in the front row of their show, to being electrocuted by a lawnmower in a pool; everyone was inspired by the poem and captivated by the whimsical ways of the play. The most captivating moment, however, is a note at the end, where Ondaatje asks where Diana Whitehouse is and tells her to call a listed phone number. This is where Alexa and Ian begin to create DIANA.
DIANA was initially submitted for the Fringe Festival in PEI and they only had 6-8 weeks to get it ready for production. For the Toronto shows, however, they worked on the play for 4-6 months, constantly adding and removing aspects to perfect it. During this process, Ian, who is also a musician, added original compositions throughout the play and specific pieces for the characters: “we just wanted to put all of our strengths into this.” In fact, Alexa tells me that DIANA became a 24/7 project; they could never really leave it alone. Despite the unique challenges that they were presented as life partners in a working relationship, Alexa found the process to be fun and rewarding. She explains that they were intently collaborative and very open with one another as they worked to make the story sound like one voice. In many ways, it made it easier for them to push boundaries with the story and their movements because of their closeness. Most of all, though they were never truly able to completely separate themselves from the work, the support they were able to offer one another was unparalleled.
One of my favourite scenes in the play is when the audience learns about the trauma that Michael experienced in his life. For most of the play, it is not clear why Michael is so set on finding Diana, and when his struggles with grief and loss are revealed, that moment was very enlightening. Alexa spoke to me about the process of writing that scene: “I kept changing it, adding things, taking things out, but definitely wanted to make it a moment that he did not want to deal with; he just wanted to push it away…I enjoy talking about that side of humanity.” For Alexa, writing allows her to tell the stories that she otherwise may not encounter as an actor. She talked to me about how auditioning can often leave her wanting for more substantive character development. With DIANA, she was able to take the reins and tell a story that features two main characters that are complex and emotionally complicated, and this scene excelled in that regard.
At the end of the play, Diana and Michael finally meet, and we are left to decide for ourselves what happens next; however, I had to ask Alexa what she thought would happen after that moment. She pondered the question for a minute and then said: “it depends on the night. Sometimes it seemed like it would feel a little flirty, sometimes not.” Alexa is quite certain, however, that it would never become something romantic: “I don’t think we’d ever see them get married or anything.”
While they hope to show DIANA again in New Brunswick, for now, Alexa is moving on to other projects under the umbrella of their production company Falling Iguana Theatre. She asks me, “do you remember that woman that they found on the crane?” We both laugh and she explains that she is so interested in taking that idea to create a story. That is what theatre can do; even in absurdity, Alexa explains: “theatre can tell important, complex stories,” and that is what she is going to continue to do.
Learn more about future projects and shows on their Facebook page, Falling Iguana Theatre Co.