VCDS takes UofT Drama Fest
Jackes and Jills is a 30-minute play directed and performed by Brynn Bonne, and co-directed by Liam Peter Donovan. It is the story of Ruby Jackes, a female comedian telling a story about her relationship with comedy, her passion, and her journey of navigating through a mainly male-dominated industry. The play was recently performed at the annual Hart House Drama Festival, where it was awarded the Donald Sutherland award for best performance.
Although the play was made for the audience, it was also very much played at the audience. When asked what she wanted her audience to remember the most about the performance, Bonne said that her goal was to “turn the audience members into the patrons of a seedy male comedy club, and really make them cringe, laugh, and ultimately understand Ruby’s journey.” One of the themes of the show is the heavy hand of gender, and Bonne wrote the play in a way where the audience not only listens to Ruby’s story, but personally becomes part of it. “I want them to know that there’s more to her than what she had to make herself, and know that they—as these patrons—are responsible for making her this way.”
The inspiration of the play came from a school assignment and a street name. The play started out as an in-class assignment with a challenge: the students had to produce a 12-minute solo play, which had to focus on an artistic challenge they are faced with in the field. Bonne used this opportunity to stray away from the usual “comedic style” that she usually writes in and to try her hand at “something beyond ‘sketch-like’ theatre.” She decided to create “a comedy set that breaks down into larger themes.” Aside from the overarching theme “of what it’s like to be a woman in a male dominated industry,” she also brings about a question of “what it means to make art that people find acceptable to the worlds they are created in.”
As for the name of the play…
“Jackes is actually the street my boyfriend lives on” which is the inspiration behind the name of our protagonist: Ruby Jackes. The “and Jills” part of the title is a reference to the theme of gender through a parallel to the classic folktale of Jack and Jill. “As I kept writing, and gender roles came more to the forefront, I thought the classic ‘Jack and Jill’ storyline gave enough significance for one of the biggest themes of the piece without amplifying it to a higher degree.”
If you couldn’t catch the show during Drama Fest, don’t worry! Jackes and Jills is going to be produced once again at the Toronto Fringe Festival this summer!
