Mary Fay Coady as Queenie in Coal Bowl Queen Photo by Jamie Kronick
Richie Wilcox’s new play Coal Bowl Queen opened last night at the Alderney Landing Theatre in Dartmouth; this new work is a co-production between Eastern Front Theatre, HEIST, and Ship’s Company Theatre and is a beautiful love letter to Wilcox’s hometown of New Waterford.
New Waterford, Nova Scotia, a former coal mining town northeast of Sydney right on the North Atlantic, is no stranger to being the backdrop of epic stories: Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Fall On Your Knees is partially set there, as is Allan Moyle and Tricia Fish’s 1999 film New Waterford Girl, but it wasn’t until very recently that I learned about something else that makes New Waterford special: The Coal Bowl Classic. Every year since 1982 Breton Education Centre (BEC) in New Waterford has hosted a High School Boys basketball tournament in January, where teams from all across the country vie to be the Coal Bowl Champions. Yet, as is specified in the play, Coal Bowl is “a lot more about New Waterford than it is about basketball.” Historically, there was also a pageant component where girls would vie to become Coal Bowl Princesses, and one would be crowned the Coal Bowl Queen.
Wilcox’s play is partially set at Coal Bowl 1987. When Roz arrives in New Waterford from Toronto with the hopes of finding the parents who put them up for adoption in the mid 1980s, they meet Tanya, a local post office worker, who tells them that their birth mother is both the subject of town lore, but also shrouded in mystery. Wendy “Queenie” Chisholm is universally agreed to have been the town’s best ever Coal Bowl Queen, but she also disappeared shortly thereafter and has never returned to New Waterford. The only connection that Roz can find to Queenie that remains vivid all these years later is her association with Coal Bowl, so they start interviewing as many of the locals as possible about their experiences with the iconic tournament, and any memories that they might have of this iconic Coal Bowl Queen.
While the story of Roz and Queenie is fictional, Wilcox created much of this play through a series of interviews that he did with real folks who shared their experiences with Coal Bowl, either as a player, a teacher, a community member, or as a former Princess, and also with many folks who offered their perspective about how Coal Bowl has changed more recently in attempt to be more inclusive and less gendered. The verbatim aspects of the show are so strong; they capture such a vibrant specificity of language, and you can feel the real passion for Coal Bowl emanating out, even through the intermediary of the actors. None of the actors attempt a New Waterford accent, but I found that I could hear it in my head at times because the storytelling was so clear and firmly rooted in the community.
At its heart this is a poignant story of one person finding where they fit in, and two teenagers finding one another amid a frenetic ambiance of tradition, sports, High School, and a town that seems to hinge on a paradox between what is restricted and repressed most of the year, but suddenly flourishes like a love bomb once a year. At the same time so much of the play is absolutely laugh-out loud hilarious, whether you’re familiar with Cape Breton culture or not.
Much of the comedy comes from the actors in the ensemble, who play multiple roles- some of which have monologues taken from the verbatim interviews Wilcox conducted. Kathryn McCormack and Sharleen Kalayil play two veteran Coal Bowl cooks who are, to use a Cape Breton colloquialism, “full of the devil:” they delight in telling the most outrageous stories from their unique vantage point and love to pepper them with bawdy humour for good measure. Zach Faye is equally hysterical as Mark, one of BEC’s former star basketball players who loves to relive his Coal Bowl glory with anyone who will listen. Karen Bassett plays Mark’s cheerleading mother and together they are a dream team of comedy. Gina Thornhill shines as a haughty contemporary young person who delights in throwing shade on the whole thing.
Karen Bassett also plays Corinne, a Coal Bowl alumna herself, and the mother of three girls, who has strong opinions about the value of the experience they all had compared to the way the tournament is presented today. She butts heads with Roz, who has trouble seeing the Princesses as anything more than misogyny being paraded around and ogled. Koumbie plays Roz as someone who is perpetually curious, who tries to be respectful in their role as an outsider, but who also has strong opinions and isn’t shy about expressing them. Their easy immediate friendship with Tanya, played by Kathleen Dorian, grounds them here nicely.
Mary Fay Coady plays Queenie as someone who is effortlessly popular, but also a bit of a loner, and certainly someone who is disenchanted and hardened in a way that makes her seem older than her eighteen years. In contrast Cameron, played by Benan Ali, is much more naïve and unbridled in his emotions. Together you see the opposites attract. Coady gives Queenie an eerie faraway quality, especially as the play progresses. Even as her Coal Bowl dreams are coming true we see that it is really masking how lost and unfulfilled she is.
As the director Richie Wilcox, with Aaron Collier’s sound and protection design, Jean-Pierre Cloutier’s set, Leigh Ann Vardy’s lighting design, and Tamara Kucheran’s costume design (with wigs by Chris Cochrane), has really created some magic in being able to transform the space into a High School gym, and capturing the spirit of 1987. The set works well to transition the characters clearly between the past and the present, and to showcase different locations around New Waterford.
Coal Bowl Queen is a very specific story about a very unique event that has left an indelible mark on one Nova Scotian town, and I think Wilcox does a beautiful job of making folks in the audience, who are, like Roz, outsiders to New Waterford, a little bit nostalgic for something they never had the chance to experience. Wilcox deftly manages to write so lovingly about his hometown, while also investigating its paradoxes. Roz finds themself welcomed, while Queenie drove herself out before she could feel the rejection she’d been bracing for. For anyone who loves the place where they’re from despite its flaws, Coal Bowl Queen invites you to fall in love with New Waterford too.
Coal Bowl Queen opened September 11th at Alderney Landing Theatre (2 Ochterloney Street, Dartmouth) and runs until September 21st. Shows run at 7:30pm Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and at 1:00pm on Saturday and Sunday.Tickets range in price from $25.52 to $45.00 and are available from this website.
Accessibility: The Theatre is on the second level of Alderney Landing, accessible by passenger elevator and stairs. Parking is available onsite, with curbside dropoff and automatic doors at the main entrance to the building. Alderney Landing is connected to Alderney Gate by pedway, accessible by elevator, escalator and stairs. ASSISTIVE LISTENING DEVICES: Phonak Roger FM/DM System available at Alderney Landing Theatre. Automatically connect via Wall Pilots or borrow a Telecoil device to sync with hearing aids and cochlear implants. Devices with headphones are also available. Please see the Box Office for assistance onsite. All performances have pay-what-you-can-afford pricing. If cost is still a barrier, please email info@EasternFrontTheatre.com. Volunteers see shows free of charge! Sign up here. There are two all gender bathrooms in the rotunda lobby, one with toilet stalls only, and one with toilet stalls and urinals. Both bathrooms are equipped with various hygiene products. For more information about Accessibility, please visit this websiteand scroll down.
