A Chilliwack man is calling his theatre production, about judgment and forgiveness, one that is "outside of the ordinary."
Hector, a play written and directed by Clint Hames, is at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre May 9 to 11.
For 40 years, Hames worked with and supported people with developmental disabilities. He wanted to tell some of their "amazing" stories through Hector, he said.
"The play is really a compendium of a number of different stories from my life supporting people with disabilities. Hector was a person I knew," Hames said. "The play doesn't chronicle his life, but I use him as a vehicle to tell the stories from a bunch of different people's lives, and I kind of put them all together in one person's life."
The play takes place in Saskatoon in the early 1980s and follows Hector Martinoff, who's in his 50s and has a disability.
The synopsis: It is the story of a family, torn apart by the past, suddenly brought back together following the death of the family matriarch, Mrs. Martinoff. Will Hector Martinoff, who is challenged by a disability, survive without her support? Will her estranged daughter be able to put the past behind her and be the support Hector needs or will the past be too hard for either to face? As the family history is revealed, will the helping professionals – ever-present in a person with a disability’s life – rush to judge, or provide support?
"There's a lot of mystery in it. You think the play is going in one direction and then it takes a couple of very sharp turns."
The play is about forgiveness, Hames said and about asking the question: what is forgiveness?
"Do we ever actually forgive people? We say we do, but do we? More often than not we forget, we don't actually forgive. So forgetting is forgiveness," he said.
"It's about our rush to judgment," Hames added. "We can be so easily manipulated to judge. Just by a couple of words or key phrases we can immediately leap to judgment and how wrong we can be."
Hector is played by Graham Archer, who also worked with people with disabilities for many years.
"Graham has a deep understanding and is unbelievably respectful," Hames said.
Archer touched on the difficulties in portraying his character.
"The biggest challenge for me is not making it caricature-ish, not making it so that it seems like I'm poking fun at somebody or anything like that – God forbid you'd never want to do that," Archer said. "You just want to show that the person is a person. The way they approach things is different, but they're still just a person."
After seeing the play, Hames is hoping people will come away with a better understanding of others.
"I would like people to understand not to be so judgmental, to inquire about people who are different and to get to know people that are different before you judge," he said. "You never know people's stories and what has got them to where they are."
There are only five in the cast of Hector. Playing the other four characters are Anthony Youssef (as Dallas Nelson), Krysandra Wilson (as Evelyn Desjarlais), Mary Ellen Shimell (as Helena Carova), and Judy Becker (as Joyce Martinoff).
With intermission, the play is about two hours and 20 minutes long. It is geared towards those aged 15 and older, and includes some swearing and talk about family abuse.
The Chilliwack Players Guild presents Hector, an original play by Clint Hames, in the Rotary Hall Studio Theatre at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre from May 9 to 11. Show times are: Friday, May 9 and Saturday May 10 at 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, May 11 at 2 p.m. Tickets $30/adults and $27.50/seniors and can be purchased at the Centre Box Office, online at chilliwackculturalcentre.ca, or by calling 604-391-SHOW(7469).
