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Weeded Bliss | Coralie Cairns and Glenn Nelson are a husband and wife whose farm becomes a marijuana grow-op in Ken Cameron’s Harvest.

HARVEST
Directed by John Hudson. Written by Ken Cameron. Starring Glenn Nelson and Coralie Cairns. Varscona Theatre (10329-83 Ave). To Nov 22. Tickets available through TIX on the Square (420-1757/www.tixonthesquare.com) or the Shadow Theatre box office (434-5564).
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Some people say that any story is inherently better if it’s based on real life. While I don’t necessarily count myself among those people, I can say that Ken Cameron’s Harvest, drawn from events that actually happened to the playwright’s parents, works largely because of the detailed character study made possible by the proximity of the real-life subjects to the writer. Centred on a story that’s at times almost too quiet to be theatrical, Harvest is best during the moments when its characters feel most true to life.

Allan (Glenn Nelson) and Charlotte (Coralie Cairns) are an elderly rural Albertan couple who, upon moving to a condo in the city, decide to bring in some extra money by renting their farmhouse. Anyone but the purest and most trusting of souls would be wary of Ron, a sketchy man who claims he’s an airline pilot and attempts to pay three months rent up front, with cash. (Nelson and Cairns alternate to play him, a pair of aviator sunglasses serving as the visual cue for change of character.) Allan and Charlotte soon find that their house has been used as a marijuana grow-op, and they are left facing the possibility of financial ruin.

Harvest’s low-key plot gives it an atypical structure, which works despite lacking some elements, especially in terms of conflict, that we might traditionally consider to be integral to a story. No one is made to be a true antagonist. After the central characters discover what’s happened in their home, no big revenge plots are hatched, and the second act is instead almost entirely a denouement, winding down to a hardly theatrical acceptance of circumstance. But it’s hard to fault the play for this, as a more outrageous conclusion would hardly be fitting for characters who are painted as such sweet and down-to-earth people.

Indeed, Harvest works primarily because of the sweetness of these characters and the chemistry that Nelson and Cairns have forged. The relationship they portray rings true as a depiction of two people who have been married for decades and love and care deeply for one another. The actors make extremely quiet and heartfelt moments work onstage by focusing on playing gentle, believable humanity.

Also of note is that all of the supporting characters — from dishonest Ron to the neighbouring immigrant farmer Istvan to (in a showcase moment for Nelson) a gaggle of churchgoing ladies — are played by Nelson and Cairns, and this too seems integral to the kind of play Harvest aims to be, in terms of style and scale. With its breezy script, minimalist set, and a pair of actors playing a multitude of roles, Harvest has the low-key feel of a Fringe play.

And for a play of this nature, it finds the right balance between weightiness and playfulness. The script develops the main characters enough that the audience can connect and empathize with them, but still allows the actors plenty of room to play around in, as they portray the rest of the play’s often more cartoonish, characters. (Though even these more one-dimensional characters are often given emotional payoffs.)

What Harvest really shows us is that anyone — yes, probably even your parents — can be a character in a play, especially if they’re written with as much humour and pathos as Cameron has written Allan and Charlotte.