How many birds can you save before you decide to save yourself? Jamie, who has a job clear cutting Nova Scotia’s bountiful forests, is far more preoccupied with the damage he’s doing to the environment than the damage that’s occurring in his own life. Bone Cage, written by Catherine Banks and directed by Cassidy Sadler, is a fascinating look at a family supposed to be going through one of the happiest moments in their lives, and who instead are mired down with their own internal struggles. 

Bone Cage takes place likely in the late 80’s or early 90’s in Nova Scotia, when some of the worst of the clear-cutting was being committed. Jamie and his best friend Kevin work for a logging company, but Jamie is very unhappy with the consequences of his career. Jamie is set to marry Krista, Kevin’s sister. Krista is just about to finish high school and is madly in love with Jamie. Jamie also has a half sister, who they call Chicky, who has essentially been a mother to Jamie and their younger brother Travis since she was very young. Travis passed away from a brain tumour, and his death still plagues their father Clarence. Clarence believes that he can bring back Travis through the power of cloning; he’s been taken in by the news stories he sees when he’s not watching Oprah. We see the week leading up to the wedding, the ups and downs it creates, and the play concludes with a shocking, and somewhat befuddling, ending.

One of the issues I had while watching Bone Cage was the language and opinions which are expressed through this play. It’s nothing wrong with this production, it’s merely the way it’s written. There are outdated and derogatory terms which are used throughout the play, and while it does capture the way those terms were used at the time, they’re used repetitively and it was really grating. I think the worst offender for me was when Clarence is talking to Travis, and he implies that people with AIDS won’t be able to go to heaven after the second coming of Christ, and that bothered me deeply. While I know it is merely of the time period, it just hit me really hard and it’s unfortunate that Catherine Banks chose to preserve that side of our humanity at the time.

My other major issue with the text itself is that very few of the characters are likeable, and it makes the ending in particular feel very anti-climactic. So yes, Jamie feels bad about his work and came from an unstable home, but we watch him drink, be violent, and there’s a part of me that doesn’t know for sure if any of that is going to change. Clarence is so devoured by his grief that he can’t even focus on his living children and their wellbeing, and absolutely goes too far on Jamie’s wedding day. Kevin takes advantage of a younger girl who he knows has learning difficulties, and while it truly doesn’t go very far, as the audience you know he 100% knows better than to do what he’s doing. The character I felt the most compassion for was Chicky; she’s been taking care of everyone around her for as long as she can remember without an ounce of thanks in return. What’s worse, is she’s constantly cast out for having an affair with an older man. When she makes her decision to leave at the end of the play, that could have actually been the end of the play for me, as her character was the main one I was invested in. 

These characters are well-performed by the talented cast which has been assembled for this production. Jordan Kuper and Molly Botten play Jamie and Krista, and they play so well off of one another. Their chemistry in their more romantic moments is on point, and yet they also had fabulous tension between them. David Cairns gives a heartbreaking performance as Clarence. It’s so hard to watch someone so consumed by their loss that they’re also losing themselves; Cairns delivers this so gracefully. Adrian Chevalier’s Kevin is goofy and sweet, and yet you can see the anger and pain which is constantly bubbling under the surface. Jenna Brown’s Chicky is compassionate, kind, and complex. Brown does an impeccable job at giving Chicky so many levels and dimensions within her performance. Elizabeth Parker Rodenburg and Alexander Austin-Boyd play Lissa and Robby, the neighbour kids who Chicky dearly loves and fiercely defends. They both give nuanced performances and allow us to see such different sides to their characters, as well as the others around them. 

The set for Bone Cage is an ambitious project, particularly given the size of Alumnae’s Studio space. They’ve constructed a massive bridge which takes up 2/3 of the stage. Painted beneath it is a beautiful beach and a river. However, this does cause a few issues: firstly, the end of the bridge is right there when you come up the stairs, so mind your head! Second is that it creates obstructed view seats, as the left side of the stage with Clarence’s home is only able to be partially viewed. At the performance I attended, there were people actively trying to move during intermission so that they could see better. The other issue I had with the bridge is that I couldn’t gauge how tall it was supposed to be. As the characters first enter, Krista playfully taps Jamie’s foot as she goes under the bridge, and yet later in that very same scene, Kevin tries to call to Chicky but she can’t hear him. So which is it? Is the bridge close enough to tap someone’s dangling foot or is it very high up? Considering the threat of falling off the bridge and landing on the rocks is mentioned several times, that usually would imply that it’s rather tall. Otherwise, Clarence’s house has very East Coast cottage vibes, and the rotary phone and bubble TV were helpful hints in trying to place the era of the show.

I was truly shocked to find out that Bone Cage was written in 2008; because of the language and the themes presented, it felt outdated and more of a period piece. While Jamie’s thoughts about the destruction of the forest are mentioned, and the haunting sound of the chopper is ever-present, this play doesn’t actually say anything at all about the environment or our impact as humans. Rather, it seems to be wrapped up in the lives of these people and the damage they inflict on one another. Jamie’s final speech in the play actually made me not enjoy the ultimate outcome, vague though it was; if Krista is merely going to endure a lifetime of abuse, how are we supposed to get behind that? It’s an odd choice for the here and now, as care for the environment and domestic violence are two of the many issues we are working so hard to find solutions for. 

Bone Cage runs at the Alumnae Theatre Studio until November 24th. For more information and tickets, visit: https://alumnaetheatre.com/bone-cage.html

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Cover Photo: The cast of Bone Cage. Photo by Nicholas Porteous

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