A play featuring grief and lost love may not make you think it will warm the heart, but New Vintage Theatre’s latest piece does just that.
In its premier run, In One Night, by artistic director Bonnie Gratz, is a romantic one-act play that explores what happens when two ex-lovers are reunited by chance for one night together.
The play features four couples of varying age groups going through a similar scenario, but each with their own take of that one night. Each couple is made up of ex-lovers who are reunited by standing as Best Man and Maid of Honour for a friend’s wedding. The exes are left to cleanup after the ceremony which gives them an opportunity to air grievances, pain and delve into the past.
While interpretations of the show vary, it was clear each couple showcased a stage of the grief one goes through after a breakup. The youngest couple is the freshest after the breakup and sadness seems to be underlying their words, the next couple’s conversation have an air of anger, while the third represent acceptance as they joke together again and the last couple has moved on and can now find happiness in, and for, one another again.
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While each couple’s scene follows the same formula, they each told their own story in their own way.
In the time that they are together they talk about what went wrong and what life would have been like if they stayed together. With the oldest, perhaps wisest couple, showcasing love and happiness after pain, grief and loss.
Starring Elana Bizovie, Tamie Williams, Melanie Eccles, Scott Hilder, Kevin Morrison, Chuck Pereen, Graham Daley and Blake Wilkins this play was sold out for most of its short run.
The intimate setting saw about 45 audience members each night sitting in the small front room of the Rotary Centre for the Arts. The audience was greeted by wine, cupcakes and a fake wedding starring two willing audience members that set the scene for the play to follow.
For those who have been through a complicated or heart wrenching breakup, this story would likely feel all too real.
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