“Deep down underneath it all I have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar, on my desk.” Robert Bloch’s witticism (yes, Stephen King borrowed the line from him) is perfectly symbolic of the quirky gruesomeness that is With Love and a Major Organ by Julia Lederer. It’s Canadian premiere, directed by Marie Farsi, gets straight to the heart of the story with an intimate production under the tent at Here For Now Theatre.  Full of laughs, touching moments, and a smidge or two of blood, With Love and a Major Organ is exemplary of the season’s theme of self-acceptance.

Seemingly oozing from the stage side of the tent are ropes which Patricia Reilly has carefully draped to form the background of the set. It looks like the guts of the characters are on display in more ways than one for this production. Otherwise, there are three simple chairs with both rope and chairs alike coloured a deep, iron red. Keep and eye out for the mail delivery system throughout the play, the ingenuity is absolutely delightful. The atmosphere created by the design could not be better suited to Lederer’s text.

With Love and a Major Organ, aside from having the most adorable title, is a heartwarming story about love in its several forms. Lederer employs different narrative styles to tell the stories of Mona, her son George, and Anabel, a girl George meets on the subway. Mona (Kate Lynch), who starts the play with a “once upon a time” style bedtime story, has always tried to protect her son from having his heart shattered the same way she had done by his father. George (Nicholas Santillo) likes routine, physical newspapers (usually yesterday’s which he’s retrieved from his mother’s house), and his job where he types and clicks on occasion. Anabel (Loretta Yu) loves recording poetical letters on cassette tapes, her purple plaid jacket, and sudoku. As the lives of these characters weave in and out of one another, they also change, grow, begin to fall sleep, and awaken in their own turns. 

Yet there’s a sci-fi twist to this lovely little love story: Anabel literally gives her heart to George. She rips it out of her chest, puts it in an envelope with a cassette tape, and leaves it at his subway stop in the hopes that he’ll find it. And yes, she’s still alive even after having ripped her own heart out. This surreal element adds to the bedtime story feel of the initial lines; we’re clearly not in any reality we currently know of despite the characters looking and acting just like us. Yet there is something incredible about the ability to physically do what we metaphorically claim – to give our hearts to one another – which inspires beauty from the objectively gory. It’s this precise balance which is kept in play throughout the production.

Lynch’s performance runs the gamut between heartbreaking and heartwarming, all with an unmatched hilarity. Her drunkenly trying online dating sites had me howling. Santillo’s George is kind and reserved, and you can’t help but cheer him on as he begins to find his own way through the world. Yu brings a light and life to the stage that radiates throughout her performance. Anabel changes the lives of both Mona and George in her own way while staying true to herself throughout. These characters start out nameless and listless, yet over the course of the play tell us their names and so much more about themselves. 

Speaking of names! Janine is an uncommon name; I have seldom met other Janines in person, a few when I was working for call centres and what have you, but there aren’t a ton of us out there. Imagine my surprise when George states that he’s named Anabel’s heart Janine! It took me quite off guard, and made my partner and I laugh a fair bit as well. I guess the next thing I’ll have to do is start watching the Golden Girls to see just how well life will imitate art.

With Love and a Major Organ is a peculiar yet uplifting show which will leave your heart feeling mended, and thankfully still fully lodged within your rib cage. Running until September 7th, spend a night under the stars and let your heart beat as loudly as it wishes. For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.herefornowtheatre.com/withlove

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Cover photo: Nicholas Santillo and Loretta Yu. Photo by Ann Baggley

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