Lawson Hannaford and Logan Robins
I really enjoyed Lawson Hannaford’s play Something Missing last summer at the Halifax Fringe; it was a really sweet little gem at the festival, and it introduced me to Hannaford’s work, and to actors August van Meekeren and Emma Davidson (who played Abby during the Fringe). The play was produced by Logan Robins’ Unnatural Disaster Theatre Co., and they are headed on a Mini Nova Scotian tour taking Something Missing to Chester Playhouse this weekend in a double bill with Jessie Walker’s play Horse Girls, and then on to Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional High School in Antigonish May 15, King’s Theatre in Annapolis Royal on May 17th, and then on to the Bus Stop Theatre in Halifax May 19th and 20th.
I sat down to chat with Lawson Hannaford and Logan Robins at the Halifax Central Library last Monday. I really miss PAVIA and their ginger molasses cookies.
Something Missing is set at Christmastime and young adult Chester is heading to their mother’s house to spend the holiday with their mom Lynn and sister Abby. Chester becomes stressed because their mother and sister would rather repress and ignore the tensions stemming both from the parents’ recent divorce and Lynn’s continued discomfort around aspects of Chester’s gender identity. Abby is in the middle trying to protect both her mom and her sibling’s feelings, while also nursing a secret of her own.
Hannaford, who is also the play’s director, says they wrote the play a year and a half ago during their elective playwriting class (taught by Catherine Banks) as part of their Gender and Women’s Studies and Creative Writing Degree at Dalhousie and King’s College. They have always loved theatre, and fell in love with writing plays during that class. “It’s crazy because it’s a piece that [I’ve] written and I’ve thought about and all these characters who I love so much, and then these new people get to bring in their own interpretation of the characters and bring them to life in ways that I didn’t even expect. That’s beautiful. I love the collaborative part of theatre that’s different than fiction.”
Logan Robins’ Unnatural Diaster Theatre Co. was founded in 2019 when they teamed up with two of their Dalhousie classmates, Zach Levin and Linda Meian to create a shadow puppet musical based on Federico Garcia Lorca’s poetry about a snail, which was produced for the Halifax Fringe that year. The dream behind their new theatre company was to “create a sustainable theatre, because theatre by necessity often is a very unsustainable practice- mostly because there’s not enough funding for people to reuse or source stuff.” He’s also interested in telling stories about the natural world. He teamed up with Hannaford through Unnatural Disaster’s brilliant Fringeship Program, which provides financial support and production mentorship for emerging artists who wish to present their first Halifax Fringe show.
In regards to Something Missing Hannaford says, “I found a lot of queer stories about family are kind of heartbreaking, and really sad, and about intense homophobia or abandonment (and that’s a very fair experience that people have, and a good thing to talk about too), but I really wanted to show something that was more joyful and more hopeful, and something that maybe people can kind of relate to in that sense, and have hope that queerness can work with family. Queerness and joy are interrelated.”
“I think a lot of people hear the synopsis and you can see them kind of tense up thinking it’s going to be very tragic or very heavy or very deep, and we’re constantly reminding people that it’s a very funny show because real life is funny even when it’s sad,” says Robins. “Something I think Lawson as a playwright captures very well is the humour in heartache, and how to make an audience feel comfortable enough that you can then show them the discomfort and they’re okay… I think with Something Missing there’s this kind of warm sense overall that lets [the audience] experience that discomfort and not feel unsafe.”
“In family I feel like it’s okay to be uncomfortable,” says Hannaford, “it’s okay to talk about uncomfortable things with your family, and actually it’s good because it benefits you all in the end, and it creates a more comfortable situation for everybody.” This idea is very much mirrored in Chester’s arc in the play.
Lynn thinks that she’s being very supportive of Chester, but Chester has the opportunity at this Christmas dinner to clarify for her the ways that they are still being hurt by her words and actions. “And by the end of the play the mother understands that, and I think that’s important because I wanted to show older people that they can still grow,” says Hannaford. Robins says that they think that there can be a lot of sensitivity in older generations around queerness and folks coming out as non-binary, and that they can be allies and supportive, but still “there’s this kind of tension of being very afraid that someone’s going to tell [them] [they’re] doing it wrong…. I think what’s really beautiful about the script is that there’s no hero and there’s no villain. I think a lot of more classic narratives [have] sort of a beleaguered hero, which is the young queer person trying to be who they are in society, and often their family and friends are pushing them down, and this is just a show with three well-rounded characters and family members who all have flaws, who all have strengths, and who are ultimately kind of trying to find how to balance those between each other, which I think is really not just a powerful story for young people or young queer people, but I think for anyone, especially people who are allies, or want to be better allies, because… [this show is about] everyone trying to do better and ultimately succeeding.”
Of Nancy Kenny, who plays Lynn, Robins says, “I feel like I learn new ways of understanding queer people when I watch Nancy’s character, and I’m a queer person, but I still will watch Nancy make these discoveries and she’s such a good actor… we just did a read-through and I was almost crying… People told me after the show [at the Fringe] that it made them want to talk to their mom. I think there’s definitely this feeling of a parent’s urge to understand.”
Hannaford said that a lot of the relationship dynamic between Abby and Chester came from their own sibling dynamic with their sister who they love so much, who is so supportive of them, but also who they feel comfortable enough to bicker and fight with. Robins mentions that the dynamic in the play also explores this transitionary period between siblings as they are going from knowing each other as children living in the same house to knowing each other as adults in their own disparate worlds. The backdrop of this is the dramatic change in their familial unit since their father moved out. “It’s not only something that Lynn is really struggling with,” says Robins, “it’s one of the many ‘somethings missing’: the father.”
“Chester is very stuck in this reality of being young and having the parents be kind of idealized versions of themselves, and so it’s hard to fit real people into that version, and they don’t really live up to your expectations,” says Hannaford. “I think Lynn has that too, where she can’t really see her kids being fully two-dimensional either. She sees them as being her babies basically. She can’t see them as who they are. So by the end of the play the idea is that they all can kind of see each other in a new, more nuanced way.” Robins mentions that it happens for most of us when we go home that we sort of revert to some extent back to the people we were when we lived there. They add, “Abby and Chester are coming home to a period of their life when the family was still all together. They were still kids. Parents were still parents. So, it makes sense that it’s a tumultuous Christmas.”
Something Missing plays at Chester Playhouse (22 Pleasant Street, Chester) as part of From the Fringe (a Double Bill) on Saturday, May 3rd at 7:30 pm and Sunday, May 4th at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $36.48 for Adults, $19.38 for Youth, and there are $10.00 Community Tickets (use code 10FOR10 (limit of 10 per performance)). For tickets please visit this website, call the Box Office at 902.275.3933 or visit the Box Office in person at 22 Pleasant Street.
The Chester Playhouse is wheelchair accessible. Please call the Box Office at (902) 275-3933 to arrange accessible seating.
Babes in arms & children under 4 are not permitted in the theatre.
May 15th at 7:00pm Something Missing will be at the Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional High School, Eleanor Mutimer Theatre (105 Braemore Ave, Antigonish). Tickets by Donation. For more information visit this website.
May 17th at 7:30pm (International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia) Something Missing is at the King’s Theatre (209 St. George Street, Annapolis Royal). Tickets are $30.00 for Adults and $15.00 for Youth. They are available at this website or by calling 902.532.7704. King’s Theatre is committed to making live performances accessible to all audiences. If cost is a barrier please contact our Box Office for Bursary Tickets: boxoffice@kingstheatre.ca or 902.532.7704.
May 19th & 20th at 7:30 Something Missing will be at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street). For tickets please visit this website.
