In October of 2005, Alberta Theatre Projects presented The Syringa Tree, a stunning one-woman show about apartheid Africa through the eyes of 6 year old Elizabeth Grace. I had interviewed star Meg Roe for the October 2005 issue, but had not seen the show due to press times. After seeing the astounding presentation, I met Roe after and told her “times like this I really wish I could have reviewed the show, because the preview doesn’t do it justice.”
Fortunately, I now get to, as ATP once again brings Roe back to the stage to reprise her Betty Mitchell award winning performance. To have the same theatre company re-stage a production so soon after its initial run is practically unheard of, and speaks volumes about the play and Meg Roe’s work.
“It is so flattering, what a thing! It was gratifying two years ago to be asked to do a one person show, because it is so tricky and a real act of faith in who you choose. …I can’t say enough about how flattered I am to be asked to do it again,” Roe said when GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine caught up with her between rehearsals. “When we finished the show the last time, I was so in love with it I told them that any time they wanted to do it again to let me know and I would come back, never really thinking that would happen because it is so rare in Canadian theatre to get to reprise something. But they called me about a year ago and said they were thinking of doing the Syringa Tree again and I couldn’t think of any reason to say no. I had such a good time, I am really excited to be back doing it.”
On the night I attended, Roe’s performance was met with a much-deserved standing ovation, an encouraging trend that continued throughout the initial run.
“I went into the show not totally knowing how it would work. I knew it had been a huge success everywhere it had been done by Pamela Gein, who wrote it and has been touring it for more then a decade. I went in with a little bit of trepidation as to how people would react. Night to night over the run of that show it was the biggest present because people seemed to love it, they were right with me and I got so much energy back from them. It was like a breath of fresh air every night. It was a surprise, how positive people were about it.”
Meg has found aspects of the 20 characters she portrays coming out in other performances she has done since.
“They have, maybe not in ways I was conscious of but coming back to them I can see it. I am so lucky that I get to work as much as I do and when you go from show to show a little bit of the previous show goes with you. I have found a few things that have traveled with me from a few of these characters, and it’s like ‘Oh that is why I have been doing that for two years, because it was so much fun to do.’”
This is the first time Roe has returned to a role she had performed before, but found it easy to slip back in. She also credited ATP with providing ample rehearsal time.
“I have never repeated anything before, so I had no idea how to approach it. Usually as an actor I go into the process really open and try to engage with the story, and then you learn the lines, characters, and blocking which comes organically from knowing the story. This time it is like the reverse, I already know the story and blocking, so I just went into it with a gentle heart and came not having done a whole lot of preparation. We had made an audio recording of the last show so I listened to that to get my lines back up. I really have treated this as a process again and a bit of an experiment in how to return to something,” she said before comparing the experience to learning to play guitar. “I have often tried in my life, but I am really impatient I just want to pick it up and be brilliant, I didn’t want to learn, so I have never learned how to play it because I am so impatient I just want to get to the product. So in doing this role again I decided to focus on learning to play the guitar, so to speak. Going step by step and layering it in and taking our time to look at the questions we had the first time and do them justice.”
Even two years later, I still find it difficult to put into words my thoughts on The Syringa Tree. Easily one of my all time favorite plays, it takes you on an emotional journey that has to be personally experienced. So I posed the question to Meg of how to describe it, and she paused before giving her thoughts.
“I think it is a really interesting look at culpability and childhood and memory, and how sometimes where we live and who we are is inextricably linked to what is going on around us. Even when you are a six-year-old naive innocent child, you cannot escape the country you are living in. How do you separate your memories, which are these beautiful childhood memories, from this evil - and we can all acknowledge the apartheid was evil. That is a very strong theme…and searching for the pure essence of you and your history. And there is the big theme of looking for your mother, for yourself, and trying to reconcile who you want to be, who you were, and who you will be.”

The Syringa Tree
April 1st – 20th, 2008
Alberta Theatre Projects
www.atplive.com