Peter Reder

This was a claustrophobic two hander with the magnificent Maltese-Canadian actor and filmmaker Valerie Buhagiar.

 

You are invited to an unfamiliar residential address. You are greeted as an expected guest by the friendly married couple, Peter and Valerie, who live there with their teenage son.  You sit in the living room as other guests appear.  You’re introduced to them all as they arrive. There are awkward silences.  You don’t know what to say or what’s expected of you.  It seems that the evening is a memorial event for Frank, their recently deceased friend.  His ashes sit in an urn on the mantelpiece.

 

Valerie and I had a wonderful time telling stories, arguing, fighting, and revealing dark secrets with our roomful of captive guests, finally dragging everyone to a local park where we scattered Frank’s ashes in a bad-tempered, fumbled, inelegant ritual.

 

It was supported by the National Theatre Studio in London, a Fuel / Jerwood residency at Cove Park, Scotland. The show was first tried out in my South London home, and premiered at the Magnetic North Festival in Ottawa.